Just a Fool's Hope
by RueLin
Summary: Hello, if you're reading this, prepare yourself for a tragedy... My name is Ruby and I have two brothers. This is my story of how we've come to believe, to hope, to live.This is my story." Movie rendition.
1. Chapter 1

One

Ok, so basically a week after I watched I Am Legend, I had this dream. So then I decided to write it down, just because I seemed very sad to me. In the dream I had my brothers were in it and so was I, but I changed there names, but I kept mine. So here goes nothing…

* * *

I drove down the streets of New York City. The weeds have started grow from the cracks in the curbs and out of sewer holes. It's been a year since the evacuation of New York. I was now eighteen and learned to drive on my own for my brothers' sake. It wasn't all that hard. Nobody honks their horns at me, nor to I get tickets for parking just anywhere. 

My younger brothers, they are now sleeping in the back row. Of course they are, they haven't slept well during the nights since our parents tried to eat us. I would be hiding in my home right now if it weren't for the investment by those who have survived the virus but now are infected. We heard this radio broadcast, and since we didn't have anywhere left to go, we decided to go there. To meet this Robert Neville that says that he can provide shelter for my brothers and I. That's all we really needed.

"Ruby," Ben, my elder younger brother, groaned waking up from his sleep, "are we there yet?"

"Almost," I said looking at him in the rear view mirrors. "Is your neck okay? You've been sleeping in that position for awhile now."

"It's sore," he said rubbing the back of his neck. "Anyways, you can rest. I'll drive."

"Don't even think about it mister. You're only sixteen and not old enough yet," I scolded, waking Will, my second younger brother, up.

"What? The law doesn't even matter in this case," he whined.

"Aw man, Ben, sit down," William complained pushing his brother back down. "Your ass is in the way."

"Watch your language, little mister," I yelled at him.

"It's two thirty, Rube," Will said, that was one of the nicknames he gave me along with other really long ones. "Are you sure we're going to make it there in time? And plus we don't know the way around here."

"The clocks are no longer trustworthy anymore." I said looking up at the sky. "I think we should be able to make it. If we don't we'll just have to steal some vinegar since we're out. We still have the black covers right?"

"Yeah," Will said holding them up.

This was how we lived at night on the streets. Before the night came we would pour vinegar or air freshener or something that would hide our scent and cover ourselves up in the blankets and stay inanimate until we see the rays of the sun again. We have grown used to holding back tears and yelping when the Infected sometime run into the car while fighting with each other, otherwise we never encountered them.

"Watch out!" Ben yelled to me as a herd of deer came running in front of us. I slammed into the breaks stopping just in time. Ben and Will rammed into the seats in front of them. Will, which was sitting behind ran into my seat, and causing me to almost crash into the wheel.

"God! That's why I told you to put your seatbelts on!"

"It was your fault in the first place. You weren't paying attention," Ben said, rubbing his head. "Dude, Willie, you okay?"

"Yeah, I think so," he said. "Shit, I bit my lip."

"Here's the first aid box," I said, handing him the box, "the medicine for cold sores should be in there, at least it'll make the pain go away. For the next few days, drink a lot of water and vitamin B, all right? Oh, and I thought I told you to watch your mouth."

"Fine, whatever," he said rummaging through the box. "Do you have a mirror?"

I handed him mom's contact case, which had a mirror installed, "here."

"Thanks," he said and applied the medicine giving a little moan. "Alright, I'm good. Keep going."

"Are you sure?" I asked and he gave me a little nod. "Alright, first put on your seatbelts. This is a car we got just a few days ago and it's new. Don't say to me: but the buckle is stuck under the seat and we can't get it out. Okay?"

"Fine," they said and buckled the seat belts. I started driving again. New York city was a foreign country to me. I've never been there before, so we had to rely on the most updated map. We came from southern California, where our home was. Our family hid, just like everybody else. Until our parents became Infected. It was a nightmare I never wish to encounter again. The day before they were just fine, and then the next they were all white and had lost their hair along with their humanity. That was the first time I held a gun.

"Hey, Ruby, are you really alright?" Will asked. "Are you sick?"

"I'm just a little tired," I said to him.

"You can't be just a little tired. You didn't sleep since last night. Here switch with me. Willie and I will get us there. Plus, he's a better map reader than you are," Ben said climbing over to the passenger seat.

"Alright then, I'll just take a nap," I said very unsure to let them take over. "If we don't get there before night fall, wake me up alright?"

"Don't worry," Ben said as we struggled to switch seats "If you worry anymore, you'll turn into one of the Infected people without the KV virus' help," he joked.

"Now just lay her head back and let us take over," Will said throwing a blanket over me.

"Just don't get a swelled head. I want you to be careful, okay?" I said, but I was never going to let them take care of everything until we got to the port, where Robert Neville was waiting. I pushed back the passenger seat and laid my head down on the headrest. I turned to face the door so that they wouldn't see that I was still awake. I was planning on staying awake until we reached the port, but when I started listening to my brothers consulting with each other on which way we should go, I fell asleep before I knew it.

* * *

I must have slept for a few hours, because when I woke up the sun was already half way down it from its pinnacle. I looked around and pulled my seat up. The car was parked right in front of a supermarket. Neither Ben nor Will was in the car. I opened the dashboard in front of me and took out the revolver that was stored inside. I was glad to see that the pistol and the bowie knife were gone, guessing that they took it with them. I left the car and entered the supermarket. I walked over the broken glass on the floor due to the window in the front that was totally destroyed.

"Ben? Willie?" I yelled into the supermarket before deciding to enter to look for them. I heard no response inside and suddenly a wave of worry enveloped me. The place was dark enough for the Infected to be in for a while, but still worried that there were some inside, I took a step inside and pulled the cock on the revolver. I was never one that was aware of everything around them. I could easily trip on a curb while walking on the road if I was thinking about something else. Yet people always said that I was calmer than most, except under one circumstance: when my bothers were in danger. I took a breath and stepped in the supermarket. I heard a step to my left. A shiver went down my spine. I took a step forward and pointed the gun in the façade direction. Suddenly Ben stepped out with a crooked shopping cart full of vinegar, food, and supplies, followed by Will which was carrying loads of blankets.

"Ah, don't shoot," Ben said cringing away.

"I'm not going to shoot," I said and lowered the gun, "By the way why didn't you answer when I called you?"

"I'll tell you later," he said and went to the car.

"Hey, Rubes," Will said, "can you help me with these? I don't know why Ben wants so many."

"Fine," I said and took half the pile. "Geez, you really need to grow, your fourteen already. When Ben was fourteen he was almost as tall as me. And his feet were huge too. Look at how small your feet are."

"Whatever," Will said and went to the car and helped Ben unload the shopping cart.

"If you're not tall, you aren't going to get girl," I said to him after dumping the blankets in and slammed the trunk door down.

"Like you have a boyfriend to boast about. I'm not going to get one anyways," he said and got in the car.

I looked up at the sky and asked Ben who has placed himself in the passenger seat, "What time is it right now?"

He started the car and said, "Almost five. Hurry up."

"Yeah," I said and got back on the car and started driving. At this time, without even knowing where the sun was, the three of us always became anxious. Will we be able to make it to the port, or will we have to spend another night out on the streets? If we have to, will we see the light of day again?

* * *

"Ah, I see it!" I yelled in the car waking my brother's up, "I see it. I see the port!" Right in front of us there was the Brooklyn Bridge that was ended just a little too early. It was a scene of destruction that many would have made a face at, but for us it was close to the gates of heaven. A man was sitting at a little desk facing the bridge with a dog sitting by him. He turned when we parked the car. 

"Is that him, is that Robert Neville?" Ben asked sitting up for once in his life.

"I don't know," I said, "Let's go find out." I was going to get out of the car when vaguely heard a beeping sound. Then he suddenly rushed to the car. I rolled down the window in time.

"I'm Robert Neville. We don't have time right now," he said all of a sudden. "What do you have in your car?"

"Vinegar, blankets, some food--" Ben started and was cut off.

"Okay. I want you to follow my car and prepare to unload everything you have. Food, supplies, what ever, you understand?"

All I gave him was a nod, because I was getting very nervous at his uneasiness. He quickly ran into his car with his Shepard. In a loud "vroom" the car started and backed out of the port. I tried to do the same just to follow up with his hurry, but I wasn't very good at going reverse, because of that I almost ran into a pole.

"Ben, Willie," I told my brothers, "You heard what he said. Get ready to take everything off the car."

With out a reply, Ben jumped to the back of the SUV and they started putting everything in plastic bags.

"Someone that's free!" I called to the back. Will replied by climbing back over to the second row. "Willie, do you still have that bowie knife?"

"Yeah."

"Pop a hole on top of a vinegar bottle, like what we always do," I said and immediately he jumped back to the trunk.

"Alright we have everything," Ben yelled after awhile.

"Okay, put my share of the luggage here in the passenger seat. Get ready to get off at any minute. Ben, where are Dad's guns and knives?"

"I dispersed them throughout the bags," he said and dumped a couple of plastic bags my duffle bag in the seat next to mine. Suddenly the car I was following took stopped. Like always, I slammed into the breaks and made in it time before I hit him. Good thing, they had seatbelts on. My hands were trembling from driving and my breathing was pressured, sweat covered my brow. I was knocked back into reality from the sound of Robert Neville's car door closing. I stopped the car and grabbed my share of things to carry. Ben and Will were already at the door with Robert Neville with a large gun that looked like a rifle. But I didn't know what kind it was? I'm a dunce when it comes to this stuff. I hurriedly came after them crashing the door closed by kicking it. Robert Neville opened the door to what I guessed as his house and we all entered. Willie dropped everything he had and started pouring vinegar everywhere from the sidewalk to the steps all the way to the door's rim. I guessed that he was instructed by Robert Neville to do so.

When Will got back in, Robert Neville closed the door and barred it shut. I dropped my stuff down and noticed what kind of state I was in. I suddenly felt nauseous and was probably going to faint at that moment when Ben put his hand on my shoulder.

"Are you alright?" Robert Neville asked.

"She's fine," Ben answered since I was numb all over. "This is what happens when you want her to drive fast."

"What?" he asked absolutely confused.

"As you can see she's good at driving at unbelievable speed, but she gets very nervous after it ends and becomes "numb" as she describes it. It happens all the time when we used to play video racing games. She'll get better when she lays down," Ben continued to explain.

It's quiet true. Whenever I play games that involve racing, I get into it very much, but afterward it like recoils on me, like I go into a state of shock, me arms get all weak and flimsy. Real life was no exception. Anyways I laid down on a sofa in the living room with Willie sitting on the ground next to me, and Ben standing up.

"Alright," Robert Neville said and clapped his hands and started rubbing them as if he was cold. "New faces so introductions. As you probably heard at the port through the window I'm Robert Neville, and this is Samantha. I call her Sam," he said. The dog gave me the impression that she was a smart dog, because when he said her name she gave a little nod. "Alright, now your turn," he said to Ben.

"Hi, I'm Ben," he said starting to get shy like what he always does.

"William," Willie said and gave a little wave.

I don't know whether it was my brother's bad introductions or if I was really better, but I suddenly sat up and said nice and clearly, "My name is Ruby Lin. Nice to meet you Mr. Neville."

"Okay, so what do you want to eat, and decided quick we need to lock this place down before the sun sets," he said and led us to a storage room with loads of food. Ben came over with our bags of food and, I'm going to call him Robert, he started to put everything where it belonged.

"Is that white corn?" Willie asked, looking at a bag that was set at the counter.

"Yeah, I got them today," Robert said, "do you like them?"

"Just a bit, it's just that we haven't ate that in a while," I said.

"Alright right, then. White corn for dinner," he said and grabbed a few. "Hey, Ruby was it? Do you now how to cook, because I'm not very good at it."

"Yeah, I do. Actually we all do," I said as if it was nothing, but he looked amazed.

"Alright," he said.

As a treat we made him dinner that night, but we weren't able to enjoy it much. His watch started beeping again, and suddenly he made a face, a face that gave me the notion that they were coming again. That's the only thing the people that still aren't infected wait for. Ben and Will must have caught the same impression, because they took their dishes and put them in the sink. Robert stood up. I took his plate and cleaned up the table along with Sam's bowl.

"Ben, Will," he gestured at them, "Come here."

The boys followed him, and I guessed that the cleaning duty was pushed on me. Casually I started washing the dishes and then wiped the table. I didn't know what to do, so I just wandered around the house. Then I heard this hard metal-on-metal sound. I was startled by it and almost sprinted up the stairs. To tell the truth I was afraid of loud noised while alone. When I got upstairs the guys were coming out of a room and went to another one. I must have looked utterly baffled, because Robert came over and inquired if I was all right.

"Yeah," I replied. I was going to ask, "what are you doing," but it seemed like a stupid question at the time so I kept my lips shut. After I though about it the answer was so obvious I would have thrown myself back into preschool. Robert was teaching them how to lock down the house. Ben was having no problem at all since his size was bigger. But Will seemed to need a lot of help. He really needed to grow. I went over to help him hold the metal door together while he latched it up.

Staying overnight at a stranger's house must have felt really weird, but to us it was just like home, except that it had a different smell and everything looked different as if we'd just remodeled. Robert said that he stayed most of the night in the bathroom tub, he must have been embarrassed, but I couldn't quiet tell because of his dark skin. Anyways, he let us stay in the master bedroom. He said that he'd return when dawn was arrived and then left with Sam.

"You can have the bed, Rube," Will said. "We know you're tired, you barely slept at all for a while."

"I don't think tonight will be an exception, but thank you for your concern," I said and climbed into the bed. It's been awhile since I slept in a bed. I thought I would fall a sleep immediately, but my hopes ended too soon. Being in a house would make some people feel more secure, but I found the car a safer place. It was probably just that I didn't know the place or how big it is compared to a car. Sounds came from the outside of the house. You can hear the howling and the yelling of the Infected. You can hear them fighting, the dogs barking. I lay completely still. Now I wished that we had taken a weapon with us before we went to bed. This was my mistake for overseeing this part. All we can to now was to do what Robert Neville was probably doing now: pray for the rays of dawn.

* * *

**So if you would be so kind now as to hit the "leave a review" button to tell me how it was. Seriously while I was writing my hands were shaking. They were numb, but moving on there own. I didn't know whether I should stop or continue. Anyways, just to tell you the little Lin's family is Chinese. **


	2. Chapter 2

Two

Except for the continuous howling and barking of the Infected outside, I actually slept quiet well that night. The bed was much more comfortable than the hard leather seat or the rough rug of a car. It was much warmer also. I was awakened by the sound of the beeping of an annoying watch. I'm probably going to remember that watch for my whole life. Man, it was annoying. I moaned a little and turned around. I can hear my brothers groaning. Suddenly I felt a wet tongue lick my face. I opened my eyes to find myself lying on the bed next to Robert with Sam licking my face.

"Ahhh!" I screamed and ended up falling off the bed and onto Ben, which was sleeping there.

Ben grunted as I struggled to get off of him. Willie sat up and dodged Sam, jumping off the bed after Robert gave a little scream himself. It was probably the rowdiest morning of my life, and it was all because of that watch.

Sam came over to me and started licking my face. Robert soon understood the situation that we were in just a while ago and started apologizing.

"I'm so sorry," he said. "I'm just to used to a bed that was empty when I came.  
"No, no. It's my fault for using it without permission," I said, and was suddenly pushed forward by Ben who was getting out from under me.

"Man, you're heavy, fatty," he yelled and walked over to leave the room.

"I would have appreciated a 'good morning,'" I shouted back at him, Sam sitting quietly in front of me. "Sorry about that," I said to Robert for Ben's rudeness, "He doesn't like to be woken up by shouting. Low blood pressure in the morning run in our family. It get back to normal once we are fully awake."

"That's fine," he said and left.

I was left in the room with the half-asleep Willie, confused about what we are to do now. I left the room followed by Sam and I guess Willie just got back to sleeping. When I got downstairs I was quiet surprised to see Ben unlatching the metal doors to let sunlight in. I decided to get right to making breakfast. Amazingly, a dunce like me, found the way around a stranger's house. I looked for some canned soup to make for breakfast.

"Hey, Ben," I yelled, "how does canned clam chowder for breakfast sound?"

"I'm good with it," he said sitting at the table petting Sam.

"Can you go wake Willie up? I think he went back to sleep.

He didn't give me a reply; instead he just went up stairs. At that time I really liked Sam, because she stayed with me and kept me company. I poured the thick broth in a pot and stirred it just a bit and left to find some crackers or bread that would go nicely with the soup. I came back with a bag of bread and decided to toast them. Then while the pot was bubbling, Ben came down.

"He's taking a bath."

"What? I wanted to take a bath first!" I said. Obviously, driving on and on for days and days without a place to stay, your hair would get oily.

Then Robert came into the living room. He looked refreshed like he'd just taken a bath. Suddenly I got pissed just a little more. He seated himself at the table and I sat down too joined by Ben and Sam. We were just about to start when Willie came into the living room. I gave him a glare but he didn't seem to care.

To take my mind off of things I began to pray, "Our papa-san in heaven, thank you for the food. I bless that it would be healthy to our bodies and won't add additional weight to our bodies. I pray that you would keep us safe at all times no matter what situation we are in. Oh and say hi to Mom and Dad for you will you? Thank you, in your name we pray. Amen."

Everyone then said, "amen," in unison. We started eating.

"Do you always pray?" Robert asked.

"Yeah," Ben said, "no matter what we are eating, Ruby always makes us pray."

"Well you should be doing it in the first place. In our situation were lucky just to have food to eat," I said dipping a piece of bread into the soup.

"Are you guys Christians?" Robert asked.

"Yeah, hardcore," I said, "our parents brought us to church started the very first week that we are released."

"Wow," Robert exclaimed.

"So what are we going to do after breakfast?" Ben asked.

"I don't know. What do you want to do?"

"I don't know? What do you do all day?" Willie said.

"Well, I first go to the lab, and then I go out and hunt, gather food, and wait at the port," Robert said.

"You have a lab? Where?" I asked.

"Right over there," he said pointing to a door on the side of a hall. I wasn't that familiar with the house yet, so I can't really pinpoint it out for you.

"What did you do for a living?" Ben asked.

"I was a virologist for the military," he said.

"What that?" Willie asked.

"Basically you look at tiny little organisms all day. When the KV hit New York I was put as the head to find out the cure," he said.

"Oh," Ben and Willie "oh-ed," although I don't think they really understood what a virologist is exactly.

Soon we finished breakfast and I tried to clean up really fast. Ben has set himself in front of the TV cleaning the various guns that Dad had. Willie was with him sharpening some of the blades that had gone dull. I saw my _wakizashi_, a Japanese blade about 55cm to 58cm long, sitting on the floor with all the other knives and daggers from different origins. Willie must have seen me look at my _wakizashi_, because then he threw it at me.

"Didn't you say we weren't allowed to touch it?" he said and continued. "Take better care of it."

"Fine," I said and left. I had asked Robert if I might take a bath. He pointed out the bathrooms. I went over to my duffle, which was on the ground in the master bedroom and fumbled through it to find my towel. I hadn't used it since forever. I went into the bath and locked the door. I turned on the warm water and watched the steam rise. Finally I can take bathes everyday again.

"Ahhh! That felt good!" I said when I got out of the bath. "Ben you've got to go take a bath now!" He was still sitting in front of the TV putting everything back to where it belonged. "Hey, dude!" I yelled at him since he didn't answer me. "Your not still mad at what happened in the morning are you?"

"No," he said and got up and crossed the room.

"Then what's nagging you?" I said and threw the towel that I used for drying my hair over my shoulder.

"I had this dream yesterday night," he said. We were always a group of siblings that enjoyed sharing our dreams to each other no matter if it was scary or boring, as long as we remember it. But Ben looked frightened of this dream.

"We'll talk about it later," I said, "Just go take a bath. You smell like a pig."

"Thank you," he said and left.

Will has stopped sharpening blades now and is watching TV. I sat on the couch and started watching with him. Shrek. Of all the things to watch, why Shrek? It's the first one too. "Why are you watching Shrek?" I asked him.

"Because it's the only thing there is too watch," Will said, but I didn't believe him. So I went to the cabinet under the TV and looked in it. There were a variety of musicals and cartoons. Then I understood the matter just a little more. This is what I came to: Robert Neville was a virologist. He probably didn't have the time to watch TV as much. He probably had a wife that liked the classics and a kid that wasn't very old. Either that or he liked the classics and cartoons. But I erased that from my mind, because just then I saw a DVD case sitting behind the TV. It was iRobot. I liked that movie. It was pretty fun to watch all those robots. "Dude," I said to Will and threw him the DVD. "Are you sure Shrek's the only thing to watch?"

"Were did you find this?" he asked and came up to the DVD player.

"Right there," I pointed to the back of the TV.

"I didn't look there," he said and played iRobot.

"Of course you didn't," I said and grabbed his head over and kissed him there. He didn't complain, he just sat back on the couch. That's why I liked Willie so much. No matter what embarrassing thing I do to him, like kissing him on the forehead, he didn't complain. Ben on the other hand just gets pissed off.

"Hey, where's Robert?" I asked him.

"He's in the lab," he answered. "He told us not to go in there."

"Okay," I said, "It's probably where he does research for the KV."

"Wow," Willie said, "you're getting smart."

"What's that supposed to mean: Getting smart? I was always smart," I said.

"Whatever," he said and I left him to watch a movie we've watched a million times already.

"Sam?" I called threw the house, and she just came and sat in front of me. She's such a smart dog. Just then Robert came out of his lab.

"Hey, what are you all doing?" he asked.

"Watching TV, bathing, and keeping Sam company," I said.

"Alright," he said and went to the living room. "Wow," he said looking at the cases of guns, "Where did you guys get all this?"

"We had those since we left our home in California," I said and sat on the couch with Willie

"You had them?" he said and turned around to look me. "Are you even old enough to purchase a gun? How old are you anyways?"

"I'm eighteen, he's fourteen, and the dude taking a bath is sixteen. Those are actually my Dad's guns," I said.

"Wow, he must have liked weapons. Are these knives his too?"

"Some of them," I said, "He liked weapons so as birthday presents he would give us daggers from some culture or something along those lines."

"He was probably a military fan," Robert said taking one that was sitting on the floor and checking it out.

"Not quiet. He was a brigadier general. You've probably heard of him," I said.

"Oh yeah, I've heard of him. He was also a master in martial arts right?" he asked.

"Yeah. He liked it so much; he made us take lessons in it. And always took us out to private shooting ranges on his days off," Willie said.

"That must have been fun," Robert said. "So I suppose you guys can take care of yourselves quiet well."

"Not at night," Willie said, "everyone's the same when it comes to night time."

"You got a point, but right now it's not night time. Let's do something else other than waste our time lounging about at home when it's perfectly safe outside right now," he said.

"Does that mean you'll take us to do whatever you do all the time?" Willie asked.

"Yeah, sure why not?" he said. And then Ben came down stairs.

"Really?" he shouted. I was really planning on sleeping until the afternoon, but on a whim I was caught in the current of two teenage boys and a dog rushing outside after Robert Neville.

"This is the Brooklyn Bridge," Robert said as we stopped before the bridge suddenly took a turn down. I guess this was supposed to be a tour of New York, except all the tourist sites are kind of… in ruins. I was gradually falling asleep, while we were driving aimlessly on the streets, when suddenly a loud humming sound came from the ground.

"Hey guys," Robert said, "have you guys ever went hunting?"

"No," we all replied.

"Well, then you guys can just watch today alright?" he said. "If you want you can join in."

"Ok," they said and then we drove off to another block. Robert drove at a moderate speed until we saw a herd of deer run by, then he sped up. I can't describe to you as to how he tried to kill the deer while in the car, because I was basically dozing off in the back seat of the SUV. If you asked my brother's they might now as to how, but you won't get any information from me. Anyways, suddenly they got off the car and all I can hear was Sam barking.

"Are you coming?" Robert asked.

"No," I said, and pushed the seat in front of me down to get out of the car, "I think I'll just go back home and get some sleep. Do you need anything? I'll get it on the way."

"No, not anything in particular. But you can go to this place and pick out a few DVDs," he said taking a map from the dashboard and circling some place on it with a red pen. "Can you find your way around here?"

"I hope so," I said, my map reading skills really needs some modifications.

"If you can's just go to the bridge, alright?"

"Sure, no problem," I said and hopped into some random car.

"Alright, see you later," he said and waved as I drove off.

Hi-jacking a car right off the street isn't very hard in my time. You didn't need to know which wire to hook up with. All you needed was a key in the ignition, and wa-la! And you can't get can't get caught either. After driving for a while, I finally noticed something very important. I was lost… Stopping in the middle of the street I checked the map again. Now I really wished the GPS's worked. Anyways I started back at the Brooklyn Bridge and started all over again. At that time the sky was dipped in an orange glow. My sense of direction kicked in, and I found my destination rather quickly. The street seemed stranger to me than normal. Maybe it's because all the images that I had of New York was packed with people, California… not all the time.

I went into the store that he said and walked around it for a while and decided to choose the ones with the most action, then random romance ones, then comedy. I totally ignored the horror section and the classic section. Then I decided to roam around the streets a little and went shopping.


	3. Chapter 3

Three

"I'm home!" I called through the house. There was no reply. I threw the bags of clothing on the floor in front is the couch, where the rest of out stuff is, and put the DVDs next to the TV. I roamed around the house. There really was nobody home.

I took a bath and changed into a Hollister t-shirt I "bought" from the store. I hate dark buildings. After I wiped clean the murky mirror, due to steam from the bath, I started at myself a good deal. I finally noticed how thin I became. A dream come true. And my pimples have stopped playing peek-a-boo with me. I left the bathroom and draped a towel across my shoulders to that my damp hair wont' wet my shirt. I never liked blow-drying my hair.

I didn't feel like watching TV right now, it was always funnier when there are lots of people to watch it with. Curiosity kicked in all of a sudden. I started going into rooms or closets, opening drawers and stuff like that. I was so lucky that nobody was watching me act like a little kid with nothing to do on a rainy day. Then it brought me to a room on the side of the wall. I turned the knob a little. It wasn't locked, so I opened it all the way and went in. At first there was a hall that just a little dark. I felt around the walls and found the switch. UV light fell over the hall and I continued down to the end and there was another switch, which turned off the lights. I entered another room.

"You know you're not supposed to me here," Robert said from the other end of the room.

"I'm sorry," I apologized, "but I was curious about this room."

"Don't you know curiosity killed the cat?"

"Curiosity is the very basis of education and if you tell me curiosity killed the cat, I can only say the cat died nobly."

"Arnold Edinborough. You are one very well informed girl," he said and looked up at me.

"Not really. I only a little of everything."

"Don't we all?" he said looking back down.

"Yeah, we do." And I walked over to him. "So what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to make a serum that transfers my immunity to infected subjects."

"So, where are the subjects?"

"You really want to see them?" he said, stopping what he was doing and looked at me.

"It's not the first time I looked at the face of an Infected, animal or human," I assured, "Plus, with his whole Apocalypse thing going on, I'm sure I'm always mentally prepared."

"Alright," he said and walked over to a dark corner, and switched off the lights. Then turned on another set of lights. "Are you ready?" he asked me, and I nodded. He pulled off the heavy canvas and revealed twenty rabid, crazy, senseless, mad, furious, frenzied rats screeching and ramming themselves into the thick glass that stood between them and us.

"Poor creatures," I muttered.

"Yeah, but I think we're poorer," Robert said, "don't you think?"

"But at least we get to keep a decent mind." I said. Robert draped the canvas over the rats and turned on the other set of lights. "Hey, if I ever become infected with the KV, please kill me before I turn into something like that, unless I say otherwise."

"Alright," he said. Then I heard the front door open and my brother's footsteps.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"It's time for dinner," Robert said looking at his watch.

"I thought dinner was a little later."

"Well, we can make it now, and eat while watching a movie and then its time to 'sleep,'" Robert said putting away his little tool things and cleaning up. "Oh by they way did you get any good action movies?" he asked hanging his coat on a rack.

"Yeah, I have a good eye for that stuff," I said and we left the lab.

* * *

I know, I know, I took a very long time. Sorry, I was just so busy, and I think this chapter is a little boring. Sorry, I hope to write more interesting ones in the future. 


	4. Chapter 4

Four

It's been about a week since we met Robert. We've grown quiet used to the way things went on around the house. What's better: less interaction with the Infected. Robert now lets us go out and about the city alone to scavenge for food and supplies. I guess that the boys are to be in charge of the hunting, although they rarely ever bring back any.

I walked up the stairs of an old apartment. Everything's old. My footsteps echoed within the metal surroundings. I was armed with a pistol on my left hand and my _wakizaki_ on my belt with my right hand always ready to grab hold of it. Sam's claws beating on the cold metal as we climbed the stair, but then she suddenly stopped.

"What is it Sam?" I asked rubbing her forehead.

She didn't move from her spot. "Is there something here?" I asked her and she gave a little nod. "Alright, go find it," I said and she ran up the stairs. I yelled after her running also, "Be careful!"

Then she stopped in front of a door and started scratching at the doorpost. I finally caught up to her and patted her head to calm her down.

"Alright Sam, are you ready?" I asked her and put my hand on the handle. She stopped scratching and looked up at me. "Let's go," I whispered and pushed the handle down. After I kicked the door opened, Sam ran in and started barking.

There was a little screaming heard inside from a man and a woman. Then curses were yelled out by the man at Sam while the woman continued screaming. I hurried to where Sam was. In front of her were a chubby sort man and a skinny woman about his height toppling over the couch. The window behind them was opened, so they couldn't be infected. I tucked my gun next to the _wakizaki_.

"Thank you, Sam," I said to her and she quieted and sat down. "I'm sorry about that. It was for safety precautions."

"What are you?" The man yelled grabbing a gun from the stuffing, which was coming out of a rip in the couch next to the side where he was sitting next to and pointed it at me.

"That's rude," I said to myself, but I think he heard because he gave me a weird look, "I'm a human, obviously. If you are going to ask what this is," and I pointed at Sam, "it's called a dog.

"Fine," he said, kind of mad, "Who are you?"

"My name's Ruby, why do you ask?" I asked while I made my way to the kitchen and started looking for bags where I can put some of the stuff that I already have on my hand.

"Fine Ruby, what are you doing? Piracy is a crime!" he yelled.

"I'm not sure if the law's still in order, Mr. Senator Osborne," I said.

"How do you know who I am?"

"Well, you were on television for that stupid act you enforced on Southern California."

"Well, are you going to kill me for that?"

"Theirs is absolutely no need to kill you whatsoever," I said and I finished looking for things. I saw that the woman was still scared stiff. I went over to her. "Hi ma'am," I said to her, "My name's Ruby. What is yours?"

"C-Catherine Reynolds," she stuttered.

"It's alright right now. The Infected can't come out in the day. You don't need to be afraid," I said to her and put my hand on her trying to bring so sort of comfort. "I know a man that can take care of you very well. He provided me and my brother's a place to sleep with out and problems. Won't you come with us?"

"Where are you brothers? Are they dead?" the annoying man said.

"I wasn't taking to you Mr. Oil-is-my-first-love-because-it-can-get-me-a-lot-of-cash," I glared at him and then turned back to the woman, "Mrs. Reynolds."

"Ms. Reynolds," she said all of a sudden.

"Ms. Reynolds, did you have any children?" I asked expecting there to be none.

"Yes, but he died a year ago," she said.

"Was it because of the KV?"

"No, he died just a little before it hit New York."

"Well, I think he was lucky. My parent's were killed by the KV," I said and a vision of that night appeared in my head.

I grew silent and Ms. Reynolds put an hand on my shoulder, "How old are you?"

"Eighteen," I replied.

"Eighteen! And how many brothers do you have?"

"Two. They're both younger than me."

"Hey, can you two be more serious?" Mr. Senator said strictly. I was caught by surprise; I never thought that he would raise his voice. "Look, we are survivors in an post-apocalypse time! Can you please not be so…so… carefree?"

I didn't speak for a while. After he calmed down I spoke. "I was like you a year ago. I thought it really was the end. Until I noticed that I was still breathing, that there was still blood running through my body, and that I still had two little brothers to take care of. I found a way to live. It's perfectly fine in the morning. You should be happy that you haven't turned into one of those tortured souls living in the darkness."

"Whatever, just get out and live you Alice-in-wonderland-life until the day you die!"

"Every man dies! It's not strange to see a man die. But at least I'm going to die knowing that I tried to live in a time of death," I said this and I turned around and headed for the door. "Come on, Sam," I said to her and she followed after me.

"Wait," Ms' Reynolds said and came after me.

I stopped at the door, "if you still want a good shelter, go to the South Street Seaport at noon but before 4 pm." And I left with Sam and Ms. Reynolds.

"I'm back," I called through the house. Apparently everyone was at home.

"Welcome back," Robert said as he came out from the kitchen to greet me. "And I see you brought back a guest. Hi, my name's Robert Neville. And you are?"

"Catherine Reynolds," she said.

"Well, welcome in," he said and he showed her to the living room. "Alright his is Ben and Willie," I heard him introduce and then I went to the storage room to put away the can foods that I got.

Then Robert came back in to the kitchen and started cooking again. I put away the rest of the things and went to the kitchen. "Is it really alright that there's nobody at the port?"

"I'm sure it's fine. It's already 5. And lucky for us it's a summer day, the sunsets later than usual."

"What you want to go to the beach for vacation?" I joked and we both laughed.

Ben came over, "what's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just that we can stay up late-r tonight," Robert said to him. I laughed to no apparent reason, I do that often when something fun just happened.

"Really?" Ben said and gave us a skeptical look. "Don't start hitting on my sis," he said rather quickly and in Chinese.

"Hey!" I cried and he scurried away.

"What? What did he say?"

"N-nothing," I said glaring at Ben and Willie while he shared something to him, "it's just another one of his…lame jokes," I lied. "I'm going to go over there now."

"Ok."

I stomped over to Willie, who was snickering already. "What did he say to you, huh?" I asked him evilly.

"Are you hitting on Robert?" he asked very bluntly.

"No. You know what kind of guys I like."

"Older ones?" he joked.

"Alright I'm going hit you really hard right now," I said and head-locked him aiming my fist at the top of his head.

"What for?" he panicked.

"Because you obviously know too much about the adult world. I'm going hit you really hard so that you forget some of it."

"No! No! No!" he yelled, then it seemed as if the timing was perfect at the moment.

Robert said, "Dinner time," which got all of our attention. And Ben came down from showing Ms. Reynolds around. And my fist hasn't made contact with Willie's skull yet. He pushed his head out of my arms and ran to the table and started setting up it up. We all ate and took baths and stayed up until Robert's watch started beeping again which meant lights out. While we were tucking ourselves onto the bedroom floor I crawled over to the two of them and said, "One word of this goes out and you won't see the light of the next day."

The three of us shared the floor of Robert's master bedroom. We gave Ms. Reynolds his daughter's room. And we all did the inevitable.


	5. Chapter 5

Five

Day number thirty-two of our stay at Robert's house has arrived. Well, I can't say that life's peachy, but at least I'm alive and active. Mr. Osborne is now living with us, that is, after we made clear that he isn't the ruler of the world. He wasn't very cooperative with the tasks that were assigned to him, well that would define his round belly. He never does anything without one of us nagging at him. I have a plan that one day, if the Infected attacked us, we can use him as a shield. Even Robert laughed when I said when we tucked into bed.

Right now I can only talk about how stupid Mr. Osborne is. God, he's like the fat possum that I caught seeking away some of the vegetables that I managed to poke out of the ground, and then sitting around doing nothing, but then when I try to catch him, he manages to scurry away. Well, enough about the oversized rat sitting in front of the TV.

"Hey, Rubes," Willie called from the front door, "I'm going to go out for a while."

"Why?" I questioned, trying to get away from staying around the house with just Mr. Osborne, everyone else is away doing something. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to find Ben," Willie said strapping a gun to his waist. "We are going to scavenge this gun shop that we found just a few days ago. It's totally abandoned."

"What isn't?" I said and got up and strapped my _wakizaki _to my belt and randomly grabbed a revolver from the ground. "I'm coming with you."

"Sure, but you don't understand the least in guns. Are you sure?"

"Anything that takes me away from being with Mr. Osborne," I whispered and we crawled out of the house trying not to wake the sleeping possum from waking.

We walked a few blocks until we reached a minivan that needed a major washing. Will immediately seated himself in the driver's seat and I went to the passenger's seat. Willie turned the keys that were still in the ignition; a horrible whizzing sound came from the car. Willie tried again, but it whizzing sounded like a bell through the whole block.

"Let me try," I said to him and leaned across to turn the keys. All of a sudden the car started. "I can do magic."

"Whatever," he said and started driving.

"So where exactly are we going?" I asked.

"I have no clue what the store's called. The sign was all messed up and ruined," he said stretching his neck to see the road.

"So how did you know it was a gun shop?"

"We went in," he said. "Don't worry, there was nothing living inside."

We continued to drive in silence until we saw Ben standing on the side of the road. Willie pulled over and Ben opened the door to the second row.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Why do you care?" I asked turned back. "Seat belt."

Be obeyed and pulled the seat belt over his chest. "You were trying to get away from the senator dude weren't you?"

"Hell yeah. I can't stand thirty seconds with that man. He still mad at me for barging into his broken down apartment and telling him there's a better place to live." Very irritating.

"Well, you don't have to hang out with us. I mean can't you go with Robert? Or Mrs. Reynolds?" Ben said.

"I don't know where either of them are. Plus, it's been along time since it was just us in a car driving through a apocalyptic city."

"Mmm. Sounds really grand Sis," Willie said.

After another five minutes the boys stopped the car in front of a very old looking building. They hopped off the car and went to the trunk.

"This is it?" I asked as they made a "shopping list."

"Well, what were you expecting? A giant store with a large sign that says 'Guns and Ammo?'" Ben said holding his arms up to emphasize the size of the sign.

"No, but I was looking for a better looking building."

"No one lives here anymore. What do you expect the buildings to look like after all this time?'

"Robert's apartment building looks just fine."

"Oh, stop it. It probably looked like this before the KV hit," Willie said and shut the trunk door.

"Look who's getting smart," I said and rubbed his head as he walked by.

In the building…. It was dark and eerie. I did like it one bit. They roamed around looking for whatever they needed and doing whatever they needed to get it, breaking glass containers and pushing things off shelves. For some reason, just the two of them remind me of a stampede.

"Hey, can you guys hurry up?" I asked. "And while you're at it, keep the volume down. It's disturbing."

"What are you scared?" Ben asked looking through boxes.

"Well… You name me one person who isn't scared at an era like this," I replied.

Willie came out from the back carrying a lot of different boxes. "I think I got some things. I'm not too sure because it was really dark back there."

My ears almost literally perked up like a dog's. "You went into the dark? What were you thinking?"

"Calm down," Willie said. "Were in the light now. You don't have to be afraid."

"What do you mean calm down?" I almost yelled, reminding myself that there might be the Infected back in the room. Thinking now, they're probably awake with all the glass shattering. At that time Ben was as light as rain, just checking all the boxes.

Just then the clouds flew over the sky and covered the sun. We were, then, enveloped in darkness. Everything became almost painfully quiet. Ben had stopped fidgeting with the boxes and Willie was regretting everything that he had just said. A low rumbling of the stomach was heard along with breathing from the other end of the room. Then footsteps going our way then stopped when the crack of glass was heard.

I put my right hand on my _wakizaki_ and another and my left on the gun at my hip. "You know the drill," I whispered to Ben and Willie. They replied by putting their hands on their guns and the other stared stuffing the ammo into their pockets quietly and hastily. All right, I nodded at them and then at the same time we all got up from our crouching position and backed to the void, which was supposed to serve as a door.

An Infected leaped at us from its shield of darkness. As he came for Willie who was making it outside I pulled the trigger and shot him down, only to find five or six more coming my way. Ben started shooting with this big gun as I call it and Willie started the car. We turned our backs on the Infected and rushed out. The cloud was still blocking the sun so we had to rush off. It didn't look like the sun's coming out anytime soon anyways. Rain started pelting down.

"Perfect! God, did you really have to make it rain right now?" I yelled up. "Can't you choose another time?"

"Well, it really isn't the time to be talking with God right now!" Willie said. "I don't think I can keep this up."

"Alright I'll switch with you," Ben said in the back. Just then an Infected jumped on the car where Ben was sitting. He shot the window and the Infected's abdomen. "Never mind. But I can use a little help back here."

"Okay," I said and pulled my gun out and threw it back. "Willie, you go help Ben." I stretched my leg to reach the gas pedal as Ben threw his body over the chair and ended up in the back. I jumped right over to the driver's seat and set it to 4th gear.

The sky darkened even more. And from everywhere that didn't have light, Infected came out. Everywhere, they just all swarmed out all at once. A couple of them jumped on the car. Gunfire roared in the back seat as they shot them off one by one.

The only thing that was running through my head was, Oh God, oh God. Please get us out of this without a scratch. I spun the wheel as we made an unnecessary sharp turn, but that threw off a lot of the Infected off the car, but didn't get rid of the ones still following us. The car jumped a little as it back fired, throwing off a few more of them. I glanced at the scale. The mini van was almost out of gas.

What do we do? What do we do? What do we do? What do we do? I screamed in my head. Just when I think everything is taking a turn down to hell, and Infected leaped his giant body on top of the hood. He screamed at me with only the thin windshield in between. He was so close; his face almost touched the glass. I flicked on the rain thingy that wipes the rain away. I had totally forgot about it, thinking back, I didn't even now what it was called. Anyways, the Infected has his face slapped around with that thing, and became aggressively angry. He ran his head through the glass.

Not knowing what else to do, I turned the car severely to the right that it tipped over and landed on it's side. Luckily, we all had seat belts on. Thank God! The Infected that attacked me on the windshield died being crushed under the car.

"Hey, are you guys alright?" I asked with a rasp voice.

"Yeah," they moaned, "we alright." Rain pelted down on Ben's face through this broken window. Then the Infected crowded around us again. Ben and Willie took up their guns and began shooting at the only opening they had. I took out my _wakizaki_ and slashed blindly at whatever appeared in front of the windshield. Then an Infected broke through the window on my left. I swung the blade at it and severed its hand. I heard it roar as the blood sprayed all over me, but it came back with others from the opening in the windshield. I prayed to God as they crowded around me.

Finally, the rain stopped and the sun came out of hiding. Screaming of the Infected was heard throughout the empty block as they ran back into hiding being burned by the sun's rays. Never in my life, have I been happier for solar power. We all got out of the car taking everything with us.

We were all covered in cuts and bruises, but we didn't care. The sun, at that time, was like heaven to us, and it was welcoming us with open arms. Then we heard Robert call us.

"Hey," he yelled as he neared with a van that was also pretty broken down. Sam barked on the side. "How are you guys doing? Anyone, hurt?"

"Well," Willie said, "what do you think?" One by one we got on the car after we dug through the remainder of the minivan for out stuff and got into Robert's.

"We better get home and examine you guys. Just in case," he said and we took off to go back home.


	6. Chapter 6

Six

"Ow!" I muttered before Robert could dab at a scratch on my arm with cotton and rubbing alcohol. "Okay, okay. Stop now," I ushered pulling my arm away from him.

"No. No. I need to clean it," he said lowering the tweezers holding the cotton. "Or do you want it to get infected?" After a moment of silence he said, "Okay. Look at it this way: do you prefer 10 seconds of pain or pain for months? Hm? Which one?"

"Fine." I give up.

"Thank you," he said and took hold of my arm and dabbed the cold cotton on the slit. I gritted my teeth as pain shot one arm all the way to the other arm. "Okay. Now I'm going to give you a shot—"

"What? A shot?" I asked absent-mindedly.

"It's nothing big. It's only a little shot that heightens your immune system just in case the infection somehow got into your system. Alright?"

"Alright," I said with remorse and held out my arm again. He took another cotton swab and lightly touched on some alcohol and then stuck the needle through my skin. I hadn't had a shot in such a long time that it almost made me jump up. The only thing that kept my butt on the metallic table was the thought that the needle might break and enter into my bloodstream. That really scared me, big time!

Robert ejected the needle and stuck a band-aid on, "You're all done."

"Thank you," I said and leaped off the table and rolled my sleeves back down.

"You really don't like shots, huh?"

"Yeah," I said. "I had a bad experience once when I was little. Plus I hate pain."

"What happened?"

"Umm… well I was just a little girl," I said in segments, quiet embarrassed, "and I had the flu, so my mom took me to see the doctor, and when he was going to give the shot, you know, at the bottom, I-I was squirming around, and he, kinda missed. So I was limping for a day and a half."

"What? The doctor missed? How does that happen?" He stood up and laughed.

"I said I was a little girl!" I stomped on the ground. Embarrassed. Just then Ms. Reynolds called my name. "Coming!" I yelled and ran out of the lab.

* * *

Just a few days later the wounds and cuts stopped hurting and my body was just fine. I've been getting plenty of sunshine to the point where I almost look like a Native American. It was the darkest my skin ever got. I was more worried about getting skin cancer than getting the KV.

"How are you feeling? Does it still hurt? Does it sting?" I questioned Willie as I helped him change his bandages. He's been healing the slowest of the three of us.

"The cut on my elbow still hurts a little."

"This one?"

"No, my left elbow," he said flinching a little after rubbing alcohol on an open wound.

"Man, you got it bad. What is this? 20? 25 lacerations?" I awed at his wounds. "You're lucky none of them are very deep, like Ben's. But you sure are healing slow."

"I'm fine," he said pulling his sleeve down. I think you should go see Benjamin. I don't think he can tie the bandages all by himself." He got up and went to the door. "I'll be back by sunset."

"You better." He left and I went upstairs to where Ben was. It was better to let Willie be alone right now. He said Ben's whole entire name, that's when he's really irritated. Maybe it's the pain.

I walked into the room where Ben was sitting. He was trying to tie the bandage around his body, and getting really frustrated. "Dude, you're just going to make yourself bleed more. Let me help."

"But that's going to be weird. I mean you're my sister. I'm half naked," he reasoned.

"And bleeding your guts out. Give me that!" I tugged the bandages from him. "Who gives a damn if your naked? I'm just worried that you'll die from blood loss." I tied the bandages tightly around his waist where the gash was.

"Will I really die?" he asked.

"How am I supposed to know?" He asks too many questions! "Go ask God that! Not me!"

"Like I'm going to do that," he said.

"What? You don't do that?" I asked.

He pulled a shirt over his head. "You do?"

"Yes, I do. I do that all the time. Is there a problem with doing that? Is it strange to want answers from the being in control of all of life?"

"No." He gave in.

"Anyways, don't bother Willie for awhile. Got it?"

"Why?" he asked and then after a moment, "He's not "first naming" us is he?"

"Yeah. He said 'Benjamin' just awhile ago."

"He's in a bad mood?"

"His wounds aren't healing and they still hurt a lot," I said. "I'm worried that his immune system isn't working properly. Maybe he needs to eat something, I thought.

"Maybe he's," Benjamin started, "no, never mind. That'll just get you killed."

"What? What'll kill me?"

"Nothing!" he suddenly got angry. He got off the bed and stormed out the room. Very soon I came to the same realization he just got. Maybe. Just Maybe.

* * *

Another few days passed and all my wounds and Ben's cuts where just scabs and Willie were slowly healing. They didn't hurt anymore. Everyone was relieved. I was wondering around in Robert's lab while he was working again, being careful not to touch anything.

He walked to the computer where I was standing. He looked down and keyed in a few things. He looked really tired; his forehead was dripping with sweat. He put on his glasses and attached the camera. This when I had to be silent. He walked to the dark side of the room and turned the UV lights off and flicked the fluorescent ones on. Then he uncovered the rat cages in the back.

The screeching still gets to my head even now. He quickly logged it on the camera. I walked over. I wasn't supposed to talk or wander around when he's doing this, but "the child in me" took over for some reason.

I crouched to the see the cages on the bottom while he analyzed the top. I stared at a rat that was lying on its side like it was sleeping, but I knew it was coming to an end. It couldn't take anymore of the torture happening inside its little body.

"Come on, Ruby," Robert said as he flicked the lights off and turned the UV lights on. I pulled the covers over the cages and the screeching rats. They quieted down like a tornado passing. Robert walked over to the table with the computer. I pulled up a chair and lumped my arms on the cold surface and threw my head on it. "Don't mope over it," Robert said. "Death is just another path which we must all take."

I turned my head at the familiar line and smiled. "You've been watching _Lord of the Rings_, haven't you? That's what Gandalf said to Pippin at Gondor."

"You know all that? How many times did you watch that trilogy?" He asked stopping in his work.

"Enough to recognize most of the lines. But that's nothing. I memorized every single line a movie once in just a week."

"You sure have a lot of time home schooling, don't you?"

"Yup."

"So was that the first time you've seen death that close?" Robert asked.

"No. I've seen a chick die right before my eyes once," I buried my head in my arms again. "That was aggravating."

He patted my head with his large hand. "Don't worry about it."

"Hey," I asked suddenly trying to lift the heavy dead atmosphere hanging over me. "It's been bothering me for awhile, but, are those glasses real or are they there just to hold up the camera?"

"See for yourself," he said and took the glasses off and handed them to me. He put them on and nothing happened.

"They're fake," I said taking them off. The smudges on them irritate my eyesight.

"No, you're just nearsighted," he said.

"I am? But nothing is blurry."

"Well, maybe you're eyes are just starting to deform," he said cleaning up his work. "Try to be outside more, that'll slow down the deformation."

"Alright," I said and left the room with Robert. "That means you're nearsighted too."

"What do you expect? I'm in that dark room all day and stare at a computer screen all the time."

"Hey, when can we eat?" Ben whined. "I'm hungry!"

"Geez, you're never full are you?" I complained going into the kitchen.

"You must have it hard," Robert sympathized.

"Ow!" Willie cried peeling off a bandage.

"Ah!!" Mr. Osborn muttered as he gulped down cold beer.

"Do you need any help?" Ms. Reynolds offered.

And Sam barked. That's how we lived for a couple of months. Just peacefully, well until night falls. But if I'd knew what was coming soon, I would exchange an infinity of nights that we survive than what was too come.


	7. Chapter 7

Seven

A girl of Chinese decent lay on a hammock in her large yard, napping. The pages of her book flipped in the wind and the trees above her cast dark shadows on her long eyelashes. The water from the pool rippled and the leaves rustled A nice winter day in Southern California, when the days are just starting to warm after Christmas, when the sun was just falling a little to the west. A large gust a wind blew in and the girl woke up her sleep.

She heard chuckling from underneath her.

"I know you're there, Willie," she said. The person beneath her froze. She flipped over to see her little brother. "How many times are you going to try that?"

"Hey, make me cookies," he said all of a sudden.

"Don't try to change the subject, you little," Ruby scolded. "And what makes you think that I'll make cookies for you after your little attempt to flip me over?" She got off the hammock and flipped through the pages of her book. "Ah, I can't find the page I was on," she muttered to herself.

Then her phone rang, she stopped the catchy tune to answer the call. "Hello? Yeah. Really? Tomorrow? Alright! Okay, see ya soon!" She closed her flip phone. "Hey, Willie! I might make those cookies after all."

"What?"

"Dad's coming back tomorrow," she said with a smile.

"Really? Ben, Dad's coming back tomorrow!" he shouted into the computer room. His brother sat in front of the screen with large headphones on playing a RP game, totally ignoring Willie. He sneaked up behind him and pulled the headphones away and shouted, "Dad's coming back!" into Ben's ear.

"Dammed it, Will! You made me die! I was this close to leveling!" he yelled back. "And you almost deaf me!"

"Boys!" the siblings' mother shouted. "What are you shouting about? And what are you doing, Ruby?"

"I'm making cookies," she said innocently.

"Mom, Dad's coming back," Willie said running away from Ben's fists while using his mother as a shield.

"Dad's coming back?" Ben asked.

"That's what I've been saying," Willie said. "Tomorrow. Rubes is making cookies."

"What is all this commotion?" their maid said in a heavy Spanish accent.

"Dad's coming back, Rosalia, tomorrow," Willie said with a big smile.

"Oh, the good general is?" Rosalia said happily. "Then I shall make him a feast!"

"Then can we go shooting? I want to shout to shoot the Eagle again," Ben said holding out his hands cupped together with his index finger sticking out.

"But I don't know how long he's staying. You guys may not have time," Ruby said while melting the butter and ran to her room.

"Should we go pick him up at the airport?" their mother asked.

"Oh, and we can go to the market and buy strawberries on the way!" Willie said.

"I want strawberries!" Ruby yelled, she set a laptop on the counter.

"What are you doing?" her mom asked.

"I want to watch anime while I make the cookies."

"It's always anime," Rosalia said and got back to her chores.

"Well, don't ruin it," Ben said.

"I got it!"

"Don't spill anything either," Willie said.

"I can't guarantee that."

* * *

Willie dialed the phone and held it up to his ear. "Hi, dad!"

"Hey! Wait who are you? I can't tell the difference in your voices anymore," the general said on the other side.

"It's Willie."

"It is. You sound like Ben."

"Ben sounds like this now," Willie said with a low tone. Their father chuckled on the other side. "Yeah, so we are at the airport right now. Where are you?"

"You guys are here to pick me up?" The phone suddenly went on speaker. So four different voices said "yes" all at once with feedback. The general moved the phone away from his ear to prevent it from damage.

"Are you alright?" one of his subordinates asked.

"Yeah, it's just my kids. There here to pick me up," he smiled.

"That's nice. I wish my wife would come here to pick me up too." They both laughed.

"Dad?" Ben said.

"Willie?" The general said.

"No, Ben. So where are you? I want to eat cookies and ice cream cake!"

"Oh, did Ruby make something good again? And did Rosalia prepare a feast?"

"Stay focused!" his sons scolded.

"Don't say that do you father," he heard his daughters' voice in the back.

"That's my daughter. Yeah, I'm coming out of Gate B right now."

"Okay, Gate B. Go, Willie," was heard. "Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Willie's coming," said Ruby.

"Oh, I see him." He waved at the boy.

"Okay, see you soon," and the phone clicked.

"Hey Dad! Welcome back!" and Willie hugged him. "You too, Colonel Bark," he greeted.

"I'm glad to be back," he replied nodding a greeting. "Well, I better be getting back before the missus gets angry." And he left.

"See you Sunday then, Colonel."

"Sunday?" Ruby said. "But I really wanted to go to church together."

"Don't fret over it. There's a lot of unexpected things happening right now, especially in New York. Plus, after Sunday, you guys will be going back to school. So you won't see much of me even if I was home."

"No, spring break does not end for another week."

"Hey, Dad, can we go shooting?" Ben asked.

"Sure."

The week very soon flew by. Sunday came and the Lieutenant General returned to the field. The days went by. The spring air still hung around. One day, after dinner, Ruby watched the news in her room.

"The miraculous," the television went out for a second and came back, "is now spreading," out again, "New York residents are now- essage from the preside-" the president's images popped on the screen, "-e are now in the mid- vacuate- now."

Ruby couldn't stand the blinking of the TV anymore. She got off her bed and pounded the television set with her palm. The images flashed and then it blacked out.

"What the heck?" she muttered and picked up her house phone. No dial tone. She went out her room. "Hey, Ben. Is there internet connection?"

"No. It just went out."

"That's weird. The phone's not working either." Suddenly the lights started blinking and went out. "What the heck? A black-out?"

"Ruby, Ben, Willie." their mother called. "Get the flashlights and candles and come to my room." The two found their way to their rooms and brought the equipment with them. And with the light from the flashlight, they found Willie crouched in a corner.

"Come on, Willie," Ruby said and put her arm around her frightened little brother. "We're here so you don't need to be afraid."

He didn't say anything, but stood up and climbed the stairs with them. Finally they reached their parents' room. Rosalia was also in the room. They set up candles around the room and lit them all so the room was filled with vanilla and orange light.

Willie calmed down a little. "This feels like a castle," he said.

"I does," said Ruby who he was still holding on to. Rosalia looked out the window. It was raining.

"Madam," she called mother, "the General has returned."

"Dad's back?" they all crowded around the window looked out to their drive out. The large SUV drove up to the house and parked. With the lights still on, a man wearing a heavy military coat climbed out the car. He took a few wobbly steps.

Ruby ran out the room and grabbed an umbrella and went outside. "Dad!" she called slipping in flats and ran out to shield the general from the rain. "Dad, are you alright?"

They walked into the house. "Dear!" her mother said and helped them in. She stripped his drenched coat off of him. "Rosalia, can you make warm soup, please."

"Yes, ma'am," said she and ran to the kitchen.

"How come you back?" his wife asked.

Suddenly the lights came on again. Willie came down with a change of clothes for his father.

"Ben," Ruby said, "go get a blanket for Dad." He obediently ran up stairs to get the blanket. Ruby turned on the heater. Their mom towel dried their father's hair and he was wrapped up in a blanket changed into dry clothes. His face was very pale and his lips purple.

They moved to the living room and started the fireplace. We drank the soup Rosalia made, it was suddenly decided that they were camping out in the living room. After his body warmed the general started speaking, "Something bad is happening in New York. A disease is spreading like wild fire although out the nation. I'm in charge of the evacuation of California. The evacuation should be shown on the news."

"There was a black out before you returned," Willie said.

"Well that can't be helped." He coughed. Their mother patted his back, but he slapped her hand away. "I'm alright, I think I might have caught a cold in the rain," he said apologetically. "Anyways we should leave in the morning and wait for the ship. Before that I don't want you to touch anything. The Krippin Virus might already be here. Rosalia you should contact you family, and see if they are safe."

"Thank you, sir." She said and left to get the phone.

They started packing and left their bags at the front door. "Dad," Ruby said, "can you tell me a little more about this virus? I'm sure you're hiding things from us. You always have been."

"Fine," he said. "Don't tell your brothers. I haven't even told your mother. This virus starts out like rabies, and then slowly you lose your mentality and live off instinct like an animal. It's spreads by physical contact and might by airborne. So don't touch anything. It turns people in to beasts, so just in case; the weapons are in the red duffel bag. Don't open that bag unless you must. I haven't told you mother, but I might also be infected. Don't touch me and try to keep your brothers away from me."

Ruby just nodded. She understood why her father wanted to keep this undercover. The boys wrapped themselves in a blanket and sat in front of the fire and soon fell asleep. Rosalia returned to her own room while their mother slept on the couch. The general kept his distance from his family and went to his room. Ruby got the computer and looked at every forum, blog, or news there is about this Krippin Virus. Her eyes scrolled over pages and pages of events that happened just a few days ago.

She wrote the information she read in a notebook until it was late into the night. She stopped when her eyes couldn't take it anymore. They stung and were bloodshot. She went to the bathroom and washed her face. She saw her brothers sleeping in a heap next to the fire. Their mother has already returned to her room.

Ruby shook her brother's lightly. Ben woke up. "Come on. Help me get Willie up. You guys can sleep in my room with me today." Ben slowly got up with Willie, both still half sleeping, and walked to Ruby's room. She put her notebook in her duffels along with her _wakizashi_. Suddenly she felt the need to return to her brothers' side.

She entered her room and found them lightly snoring on her bed. She sighed at the cute sight of her bothersome brothers sleeping quietly. She was about to doze off when she heard someone advancing her room. She opened her door quietly. It was her mother, she stood right outside the room. Her breathing was heavy and fast.

"Mom?"

"Ruby, we need to run away. Run away now. Something's happened to your father. Get your brothers up and run away," she said as if there was a large stone on her chest.

"What?" Ruby asked, the hair on her back pricked up.

"Hurry up!" her mother yelled. Waking her brothers up. She raised her hands, "Hurry up and go before I lose my mind!" Suddenly her hands shot up and cupped Ruby's throat. They fell back into the room kicking. Ben and Willie shot up, wake, from the bed. Ruby kicked her mother off.

"Get out!" she yelled and they scrammed out of the room. Ruby clicked the lock on the door and slammed it shut as her mother lost her mind and crashed into the door. She slammed into it continuously as if she didn't know all she needed to do was turn the handle and she's free. Snarling can be heard in the dark hall.

"What's happening, Ruby?" Ben asked. "Why the hell was mom trying to kill you?"

"She infected," Ruby said. "I'll tell you later, but I don't think our house is so safe anymore." She felt Willie panic, and Ben was on the edge. She made them crouch down near the ground and whispered commands. "Listen, we were supposed to evacuate from this area, but there was a black out, so I think most of the residents here did not hear, alright. I need you to take the duffel bags. I want Ben to get the keys on the counter in the kitchen and Willie to put the bags at the front door and put them in the drunk of the SUV. Ben, while Willie is loading, take Dad's red bag, there are guns inside. I know you know how to use them, so I want you to protect Willie while he's busy. I'm going to see if Rosalia is alright."

"Protect Willie from what?" he said panicking.

"Anything that seems out of place. I'm going to trust your decisions. As an older brother, protect your younger brother," Ruby said looking hard into her younger brother's eyes, passing this sense of protection down. "Do not hesitate to shoot, you understand?" Ben nodded. "Now hurry out."

Instantly, Willie went to the front door. Ruby went with him and took out her _wakizashi_. Ben can quietly to the door with the keys in hand. And they hurried out the door, Ruby headed the other way to Rosalia's room, strapping the blade to her waist. As a daughter of a Lieutenant General, she was skilled in some martial arts. The fireplace still crackled with a dying fire. She knocked on Rosalia's door and entered. The maid slept on her bed. She shook her up.

"Rosalia, we're going," she said.

"Now? But it's not even morning yet," she said, changing.

"Well the situation changed," she said, "let's just hurry out of here. The boys are waiting outside."

"What about your parents?"

"They can hardly be recognized as Lieutenant General and Mrs., Lin anymore," she said sorrow filled her tone. "Anyways get out of here."

Willie hurriedly threw the heavy duffel bags into the car as Ben stood behind him holding his beloved Baby Eagle poised and ready to shoot. He was nervous to the bone, Willie was holding in his own tears.

"Ben?" he heard from his left. He turned with one swift motion and pointed the gun at a neighbor girl. She was pale, her eyes dark, and her body stiff. She still wore her pajamas in the cold frigid air and her hair was uncombed. "What are you doing?"

"Sal," Ben muttered. Suddenly people started coming out of their houses, people that the siblings knew, walking out of their houses like Sally. Walking toward them with hunger stirring their bodies.

"Willie finished and he turned to Sally, "Come on, Sally! Come with us. Ruby has a plan!" He stretched out a hand to her, innocently. The girl raised her hand to, but Ben cocked his pistol and pointed it at the girl. Her expression changed. "Ben, what are you doing? She's-"

"She not normal. Ruby said to be careful," he said.

"No!" Willie said pushed his arm down to lower the gun. Then the girl leaped at them. Ben shot at her. Then the whole lot of people leapt at them.

Ruby heard the gun shot inside the house and worry overcame her. Then out of the darkness, her father's image crawled out. He was balder then before and his breathing like their mother's. His eyes were dark and stared evilly at his daughter. A rumbling came from his stomach.

"Sir," Rosalia said, "what are you doing?" She stepped forward to the general.

"No," Ruby warned her. But her mother suddenly tackled her from the side standing over her on the kitchen floor. Rosalia's screams filled the house. Then the scent of blood erupted, the general stomach grumbled again, his monstrous side taking over. Ruby stood in front of the stove, she turned the knob and fire blew out, scaring the general a little. As if it was a scaring contest, he roared at her and advanced. Ruby fell back and knocked over a bottle of oil on the counter. Flames exploded, the general was taken aback by the heat and light.

She grabbed the large bottle of oil on the ground and ran off to the living room. She opened the cap while running away and spilled it. Her father came after her. She turned around to face his as he jumped in the air to attack her. She swung the bottle and oil spilled out. Some fell into his eyes and her fell screaming in pain on the ground. She flung the bottle around drawing a line on the carpet between him and her. Then took a log with a small flame from the fireplace and threw it on the ground. Flames spurted out everywhere.

She cowered onto the ground, panting for breath. Gunshots and screams were heard from out side.

"Ben. Willie." She muttered and scrambled up on her feet. Then a slim strong hand came from the fire and grabbed her foot. She stumbled back onto the ground. Her mother crawled over her. Her hand slashed across her mother's chest with her blade. Her mother retaliated and got away from her. Ruby got up again and headed to door, but stopped by her mother pining her against the wall. Ruby hit a wall crouched next to it, her mother looming over her. She closed her eyes as her mother's white face almost came to contact. She smelled the blood on her mother's lips and cheek it made her sick.

Her mother stopped snarling. With a dying tone, her mother whispered in her foreign tongue, "Live. Live for us." The monster threw herself into the fire. Ruby panted for breath and got back up again for the next thing on her list: protect the boys.

She ran out the house. Infected dogs and people swarmed around the car. They smelled the flesh of the boys. They were shooting with Glocks at the advancing people. A crazy dog jumped from the roof at Ruby, she swung her blade like a bat at it, slashing its chest.

"Get in the car!" she shouted to her brothers. Willie climbed in the trunk while Ben kept guard. Ruby slashed her way to the front seat, Willie threw her the keys and she started the car. People jumped onto hoof and over the car pounding it. Ben jumped in and slammed the trunk shut. "Ready?" she yelled.

"Yeah!" she heard and turned the stick to four-wheel drive and backed out the driveway, crushing people under and throwing people above. She turned wildly and flung more people to the ground and with a loud shriek drove away at the crack of dawn. As the light came up screaming and shrieking was heard behind them as the sun cast its deadly light on the Infected.

She drove to the dock where they were supposed to be loading ships. But there was only people, no ship or even a rowboat. She drove away, knowing that one may never come.

"Where are we going to go now?" Willie asked.

"Anywhere. Anywhere but here," she answered strictly. "As long as we live our fullest, anywhere is fine."

Still in confusion, the brother's decided in their hearts to trust their older sister.

* * *

Hot out of the oven, so there might be grammar and spelling mistakes. Please forgive.


	8. Chapter 8

Eight

Another few months past, our lives were in the middle of anxiety and freedom to do whatever we wanted. New York is nice, without all the people and traffic and crime. I never thought that I'd be so easy and… quiet. Of course I wanted to watch the sun set from the Empire State Building, but of course that was a never. Actually I never saw another sun set after that year.

"Hey, Ruby," Ben called. "Want to go get some food? Willie is coming too."

"Alright, I'll go see what we need." I got off the couch and walked past the drunken senator, then past Miss Reynolds.

She has fallen asleep again weeping. She had been doing this more and more often. But when she wakes she always smiling, sadly, but smiling, while Mr. Osbourne here is just drinking away.

I quickly wrote down a messy list and stuck the paper into my pocket. I went the lab and stuck my head in.

"Robert! We're going to get food, okay?" I yelled down.

"Okay!" he replied.

I went to the door and Sam followed. "You want to come too?" She wagged her tail excitedly. "Okay." I opened the door and she jumped out like she's been caged in the house for years. "Let's go." We hopped in a random car and drove off to the supermarket.

"Okay, we just need some ketchup now," I said, "and then corn."

"I got the ketchup!" Willie shouted turning from a corner.

"Of course you did." Ketchup is his favorite sauce, to a disgusting level. He puts it on everything.

"I'll get the corn," Ben said. "You guys head back first."

"Alright," I said. "Take Sam with you. She seems like she wants some sunlight."

"Come on girl!" Ben said and went off in another direction.

Willie and I headed out. He started unloading the cart. Ben jumped into another car.

"Do you have a weapon?" I asked him. He held up a gun and waved it around and drove off. Sam stuck her head out of the window and barked three times.

"Yeah, see you soon!" I waved.

A few hours after we returned home, Ben finally walking through the door. I was going to yell at him for staying out too long. Apparently we had a very strict curfew.

"What were you doing?" I yelled. "What the heck it this?"

"It's fish," he said. "I found a pool full of them when we were coming back."

"What kind of fish is this?" I asked taking a closer look. The fish was still breathing.

"I think its trout," he said holding them up.

"Well, who's going to clean them out?"

"What?"

"You have to take out all the organs before you cook the fish. Haven't you ever seen Mom do it before?"

"No. But if you teach me I'll do it. I don't want to eat the same thing again."

"Fine, but I don't really now how to do it. I just saw her do it… once."

"Whatever. But I think we need to freeze them first."

"Or we can take out their innards and then freeze them, so when we want to cook them we don't need to take the innards out. And we can remove the bones while we are at it too. Remember last time we had trout and I was careless and almost swallowed a bone?"

"Right. That was funny." Ben smiled and I smacked him on the head.

"Forget it. Willie, want to take a shot at removing a fishes guts?"

"Sure!" he said, and quickly ran away from Mr. Osbourne taking about politics.

"It was so funny," Ben continued to laugh. "You almost turned blue."

"I said forget it!" We went to the kitchen. Ben put a large bag of corn down on the floor and the fish on the side sink. "Alright first of all. Clear the kitchen counter."

Willie set his arm on the counter and pushed everything to the side. "Done."

"Right. Cutting board. Knife. Fish." I gathered all the things I need. The fish was still alive so I added a hammer. Then the brutal fish killing happened.

Few hours later, when the sky was dyed orange, we dug a hole somewhere away from the building and buried the insides in and covered them.

"Well, that does it. Let's have deep fried fish for dinner." Ben said.

"Okay!" and we hurried back home.

We ended up not having fried fish, because Robert said the smell would attracted the Infected, so we decided to eat the fish at lunch tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid that my brother would not be able to taste crispness of the fish.

* * *

Short chapter, nothing really happened. Just a little gross. But just wait for the next chapter. I'm sure I won't let you down.


	9. Chapter 9

Nine

I stretched out on the bed. I was lucky enough to wake up before Roberts annoying watch went off. It was about the fifth month that I've heard the thing beeping. I climbed out of my sleeping bag and walked like a zombie to the bathroom. After slashing my face with cold water, I finally woke up.

I went down to the kitchen and pulled out the fish from the freezer and set it to thaw on the counter. With nothing to do I started tiding up the living room, first by removing Mr. Osbourne's bottle of wine from the crook of his arm. His belly really has gotten large, and his breath smells. I started organizing the large tower of DVDs, putting each disc in the right box and lining them up by alphabetical order. The moved to the cushions scattered all over the floor.

As I started lining them up I heard it, the annoying beeping, then moaning and stretching and yawning, then heavy footsteps headed for the bathroom. As if finished setting all the cushions down Robert walked down and unhooked the metal door letting light pour into the room and waking up Mr. Osbourne.

"Good morning," we greeted each other.

Then a little rat scurried from its hiding place to another. I let out a little scream.

"What?" Robert asked.

"I saw a rat. It was black and fast and… eww." I shivered. "It might be infected."

"Wait, calm down." Robert put a hand on my shoulder. "You said it was black right? Then it's not infected."

"But there is still the chance that I can be infected the next time that we see it."

"Okay, I'll try to find it before that happens. But for today I think you guys should spend the day outside. All of you are still not immune to it fully. Okay, so take your brother's and the others outside for today."

"Alright." I headed up the stairs and pulled my brothers out of sleep then woke up Ms. Reynolds and then hauled the senator off his large ass. After the senator heard about the situation, he almost flew out of the house.

Outside we climbed on a aircraft carrier battleship thing, I'm not sure that it's exactly called, but Ben said it was a carrier and that's all I know. Even though our father's a general, I'm still a dunce when it comes too military. Just like how Mom was.

We spent the whole morning there. Ben and Willie got all excited and climbed into a jet. It took all my strength to get them out. Mr. Osbourne was drinking again, and it took the rest of my non-existence strength to take the bottle away from him. I tell you drunken fat men are vicious. But after that he just went to sleep. Ms. Reynolds spent the time looking at the horizon. At least there's one person I don't need to keep an eye on.

Soon the afternoon rolled by. And Willie decided to run back and get Robert and the fish I left on the counter to have a barbeque. Robert came first.

"Hey, where's Willie?" I asked.

"I didn't see him. We must have missed each other," Robert said. "This place is nice."

"So did you catch the rat?

"No, but I did see it run outside. So the building's safe."

"Good because, Willie went back to get lunch."

"Hey, guys!" Willie said climbing on the carrier with the fish and a hotplate. He set everything down and Robert started setting things up with Ben.

Willie sat down next to me. His finger was wrapped with a bandage.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Oh, this? I went back home. Robert wasn't there anymore. I went to get the fish, but there was a rat on the counter sniffing the fish. When I shooed it away, it bit me. Don't worry I'm sure it's not infected. And even if it was, I gave myself the shot Robert gave us last time. So I'm just fine. Plus I'm under the sun."

"Alright, but tell me if you feel bad okay?"

He nodded.

Crispy fish, very good. Ben brought drinks for us. Soda for us three, beer for Robert and Ms. Reynolds, and water for Mr. Osbourne, though he was pretty angry at us for not getting him alcohol.

"Ow, ow, ow," Mr. Osbourne said. "My head hurts."

"Of course it hurts with all the drinking. Wait here, I'll go get you some hangover pills." I climbed down the carrier, made sure I had my _wakizashi_ at my hip and set off.

There was a liquor store near by. I searched everywhere for the pills. It seemed weird to me that there were no hangover pills anywhere in a liquor store. After searching behind the counter, I found the pills.

"Finally," I said. I hopped into the car and drove to the carrier.

Mr. Osbourne was holding a packed of ice in his baldhead. I handed him the pills.

"Thanks," he said.

"I looked everywhere for those, so you better be sober after this."

"You had to look everywhere for hangover pills," he asked after popping the drugs in his mouth. "They should always be at the back of the store where the liquor is."

I didn't think to check at the back of the store. "Well, I've never drank anything alcoholic, so I wouldn't know."

"Have you ever smoked a cigarette?" Robert asked.

"No."

"Went partying with your friends late at night?" Ms. Reynolds asked.

"No."

"Well, aren't you a saint?" Robert mocked jokingly.

"I just find drinking and smoking a disgusting habit and never really like having parties late at night unless it's a sleep over, with only my closest friends."

"You're a weird teenager," Robert said.

"No, she's a good girl," Ms. Reynolds said.

"I'm on her side now," I said. "By the way where are my brothers?"

"I think I saw them over there," Robert said pointing to the far side of the carrier.

"I'll go get them." I got up and ran to the end. And of course, they've climbed back into the cockpits. "Oh my goodness! You guys, get down from there! It is very dangerous!"

"Ruby!" Ben called. "Willie says he's not feeling very good. He says his stomach hurts."

"Well, get him down here!"

Slowly, they climbed out. Willie looked very pale.

"Ruby, I don't feel very good," he said slowly.

"That's because you didn't listen to what I said. Now let's get over to Robert. Maybe we can go home earlier."

Soon we were all driving back home. As usually we splashed vinegar at the doorstep, but when we got in Ms. Reynolds screamed.

"A rat! A rat!" she screamed and scurried on the couch where Mr. Osbourne has already settled in. Robert and us three headed to the crime scene.

A little rat lay on the ground. Its skin was albino white and its eyes black. Sam came close to sniff it, but Ben pulled her back. Its chest and belly pumped air into the body like a machinegun.

"Robert, I don't think it ran out the house." I slowly inched around it.

One by one we all walked to the half of the room with light. Robert took a plastic bag and threw the body out after the creature died.

Willie was sitting in a dark corner of the room. There was something wrong with the atmosphere. Ben and I could feel it. Willie's breathing became loud and we could hear it from across the room. A sudden rumble came from his throat like a growl.

Then the weirdness spread through the room leaving us all in danger. Willie slowly turned around to face us. His eyes were no longer innocent as before, but glares at us with an evil intent. We all knew what had happened.

"Will? Willie?" Ben muttered scared out of his mind. Willie stands up in the shadows of the corner. He stays motionless. Samantha starts to growl. The whole group of us backs away.

Sam starts barking. "No, Sam!" I shrieked and pulled her back. I kneeled on the ground next to her. "It's okay Sam, it's okay," I hushed her, although I know it's not okay.

"Sam, down," Robert said and lowered his hand to emphasize his command. Sam lowered her head. Mrs. Reynolds was covering her mouth with her hands and Mr. Osborne was scared stiff sitting on the couch. Just then a cloud rolled over and hid the sun. The room became dark. Willie stepped out of the corner and advanced toward us. A growl came from Willie, and he gnashed his teeth like a dog would at a cat. Sam barked back at Willie's gnashing as if he were an animal himself. To reply Sam's barking Willie howled. I yelped and fell back, still grabbing hold of Sam's fur to prevent her from leaving my side. Then the cloud flew away and light flooded the room. Willie shrieked as the UV rays hit his frail body. He fell to the floor and started to squirm on the ground painfully.

He was like that for about a minute then another cloud rolled pasted. He was now panting for breath sprawled on the floor. Then out of the blue he lurched his body forward at me. As a last minute reflex I reached for my _wakizashi_ at my waist and pulled it out and held it forward. I opened my eyes and saw that Willie was just a few centimeters from my face. My _wakizashi_ was just wedged in his chest just barely. I pushed Willie away from the blade with my foot back into the light. But before he can start to writhe a shot came from behind me and he fell to the floor.

"Willie!" I yelled and ran over to him followed closely by Sam and Ben.

"Will! Will! William!" Ben yelled at his dying body.

"Willie," I sobbed. At that time I really wished that he still had a mind of a human, that way he could have said something with his last breath like in the movies. But I guess we were spared that moment. I turned around and saw Mr. Osborne holding a pistol, but it didn't look like he was the one that shot Willie. Ben then got up and thrusts his body on Robert.

"How can you do that?" he asks him holding him by his shirt collar.

"Look, Ben!" Robert tried to reason with him. "Ben! Calm Down, Ben!" he said to him. "Ben," he said putting his hand on Ben's head, "I didn't want to either. Willie was like a son to me, and so are you. I don't want him to become like the others. If you had a gun in your hand would you have done the same? Did you really want your brother to suffer like that?"

"Shut up!" Ben yelled.

"Benjamin!" I yelled at him still facing Willie, pushing his hair out of his face. "Robert's right. Don't trouble him anymore than we already have." I said. My tears have now stopped flowing. Sam came by and lied down next to me giving a little whimpering sound. Ben took his hands off of Robert and wiped his tears away.

The sun was still up so we buried him near the ocean and set up a crooked cross as a head stone. As the sun set and the watch beeped we hurried home. No one said anything.


	10. Chapter 10

Ten

Time moved at a pace that Death would not even stand. I heard the clock on the wall tick the seconds, but it seemed too quick to me. The TV was on, my eyes were on the screen, but I didn't take any of it in. For the last twenty-eight days, I tried to keep myself busy, doing things one after another until I could not move on and sleep asleep right on the spot, trying to keep my mind off of it.

Ben threw tantrums for the first week. And I would always look at him and he would shut up. I don't know how my face looked like that made him obey so much, but I kept thinking: Don't cause any more trouble.

Everything went back to the way it was. Mr. Osbourne would sleep and then drink, and then sleep again. Ms. Reynolds would worry about something invisible and cry herself to sleep every night. Robert was always in his lab, and Sam stayed silent in the room.

I sighed on the couch. I was tired, but not tired enough. I knew if I fell asleep right now my head would be flooded with images of Willie. I got up automatically and went to the kitchen to make dinner. It was only four in the afternoon, but it was something to do.

I went to the cupboard with exactly twelve steps from the sink. The canned corn was on the third level on the far right, tuna first level second one to the right. The large mixing bowl in the lower drawer at the back, spatula in the drawer in the counter, and the mayonnaise was in the fridge on the side shelf. I dumped all the contents in the mixing bowl and just slapped a spoon of mayo on top and mixed it all. I set it on the table and took out the last packet of saltine crackers from the storage and dipped it in the tuna and corn concoction.

Ben came over and just watched me eat, which was pretty unusual considering that it was Unfathomable-Stomach-Ben. I stared at the sun set from the backyard sliding doors as I ate.

Suddenly he slapped his palms on the mahogany table. A loud "splat!" sounded through the house. His hand must be numb by now.

"What?" I said with the high annoying sound that I use only when I'm irritated.

"Stop doing that!" he screamed at me.

"Doing what?" I screamed equally back. "I haven't done anything wrong!"

"Exactly! You haven't pissed me off, annoyed me, or even spilled something. And you're pro at that!" His voice was starting to sound a little desperate.

I scoffed at the statement even though it was true. I turned back to my tuna mix thing with crackers.

He moved to the other side of the table facing me. I didn't even notice that over the past month how much he has grown. He's was lot darker too.

"You are a robot!" he stated.

I looked up at him with immense stupidity. "What's the problem with you?"

"I don't have a problem," he said firmly with maturity I've never noticed. "You have the problem! You are dead inside!"

"Dude, what's with the cliché lines?" When I use this language, it means that I am incredibly irritated.

Robert entered the kitchen from the side entrance. "Hey what's with the yelling and screaming and pounding? I could hear the two of you all the way in the basement."

"It's nothing," I said as soothing as possible to Robert, "just a stupid sister and brother quarrel." I glared at Ben.

"Sister and brother quarrel my ass," he said arrogantly.

I slapped him with minimum force with my fingertips on the corner of his mouth. "Watch you language boy," I said strictly.

Ben looked at me weird. He scurried to my side and poked my at the waist. "Like I care, fatty!"

"I am not fat. How can I be fat when I'm cleaning after all your bad habits?" He poked me really hard.

Robert decided to wait out on the fight and got himself a cup of some whiskey we found just last week and sat down close to the table. He took a sip and set the glass gently on the table next to the mixing bowl of mashed tuna.

Ben took a saltine cracker and stuck half of it in his mouth. Crumbs littered the table and the floor. It popped a vein in my head.

"See! I have to clean up after you all the time!" I said standing straight up. I took a napkin to sweep the crumbs to the floor to sweep up later but on the way to the edge, my knuckle knocked over the glass of whiskey. Robert just watched it fall over like he set it there just for it to spill.

"YES!" Ben whooped toward the living room. Half scared Mr. Osbourne awake from his third nap in the afternoon. "Yes! We have the old Ruby back! Man, I couldn't stand you being all robot-y and perfect." He sighed so loudly. It was a good and tired and satisfied sigh. He really matured. "Mission accomplished!" he high fived Robert. "We have revived Ruby." Mature moment ruined.

I wiped up the whiskey on the table and just threw paper towels on the floor to absorb the rest. I sat back down on the chair feeling somewhat better than before, but very, very, very, VERY irritated.

Robert laughed also, which made a light dent toward happiness.

"Annoying," I muttered in Chinese. Chinese is nice, being just a one syllable word; it makes "annoying" sharp and makes my point.

"What was that?" Robert asked sitting up.

"Showering!" I yelled and stormed up the stairs hoping that it would collapse. I turned the handles for the water abruptly and sat on the toilet to wait for it to warm up. Man! It was so boring! I thought at the time, but only five seconds have passed. I stormed into the room Ben and I now share and got the manga I borrowed from the desolate Barnes and Noble just down the street. It was about civilized vampires and a civil war that occurs between them. Well, close enough to the Infected I guess… But "Vampire Knight," the title of the manga, was pretty interesting… well, almost all shoujo manga with vampires are interesting to me. It was the last volume which was release prior to the KV. It must be treasured.

The mirror started to fog up when I came back. I put the book gently down on the sink counter and locked the door. I spent a total of five minutes in the shower just letting the water pour over my body. I wasn't sweaty or anything. Like anyone can be sweaty on a winter day in New York with the heater on.

After the short shower I filled with tub with water and gave myself a bubble bath. I sat in the tub for about an hour and a half just soaking up the warmth. Soon the water cooled after about the fifth time I refilled the water I decided to leave the tub and do something else that wastes time. I pulled the plug of the drain after dressing and left the room.

Ben passed by the hall while I was getting out and said, "Yep, Ms. Takes-a-lot-of-time-in-the-bathroom-girl is back. What did you do in there? Give birth?"

I made an ugly and scrunched up face at him and mimicked him with the annoying high voice. I followed him down the hall. I could tell he just cut his hair because there was still hair lingering on his shirt collar. His hair was cropped just above the neck line in a neat straight line. Finally I can see the nape of his neck. His hair was nicely cut around his ears and up the back of his head. The front is his hair stood up with a little water.

He must have been outside a lot recently because his skin was really, really dark. Almost the same tone as Robert's, just a little darker and he would have passed as a Native American. His jaw was angled and his chin was strong. His neck was thick, and his arms and legs were hard with muscle. I could faintly see a six-pack under his too small t-shirt that used to be huge for him. Honestly, if he wasn't my own little brother I would have fallen for him.

What happened this last month? Suddenly my little brother Ben has a sex appeal. God is amazing.

"Ben!" I called. He turned around in a way that would have made a lot of girls to weak at the knees. But, Ha! I'm his sister. "Hand," I commanded and held up my right hand. He sighed since this was probably the umpteenth time I've done this. He held up his own right hand and pressed it next to mine. It was like a giant's hand to me. "Aw, Man! You're taller than me!" I whined and pulled my hand away.

"I've been taller than you for a long time now," he said. "Did you just notice now?"

"Yes," I admitted.

He laughed and put his super large hand on my head and patted my head. I pushed it away quickly. "You may be taller than me, but it'll be another thousand years before you get to pat my head," I scolded him.

* * *

I'm so sorry for the extremely late upload. I actually had this chapter writting about two monthes ago... I just forgot that I didn't upload it..... -_-

I'm so sorry. (cry)


	11. Chapter 11

Eleven

This is one of those stories in which every character comes to an end. One way or another, this is a story whose skies are always gray. Yet, as I look up right now it's as blue as the sea. It is as if our hope… well, even though our end might just be around the corner or if our life will be in a cage of light with the dark creeping closer, I don't want to admit that our hope is unreachable. The days have been passing by to slow, but the minutes too fast.

I have recently been spending my time either dozing off or spacing out thinking about something irrelevant. I think I'm becoming a poet in a way. Along with spacing out, I've been more observant that normal. I've noticed things changing in my survivor-mates, as I would like to call them. Ben has been growing… well, buffer and much taller than I would expect him to be. Mr. Osbourne has really stopped drinking, and seems braver than when I first met him. He goes out more than usual lately. He's also losing his chubbiness. Ms. Reynolds has probably changed the most. She's shivering a lot of the times that I see her, and she seems frailer. Robert has been in his lab a lot lately and we rarely see him except when at dinner.

Since I'm becoming a poet day by day, you could imagine me spending most of my time outside looking out at the ocean or at the sky or at the desolate city. I think Willie's death may have traumatized me into this, but… well I hope our fate won't be as painful as his.

"Ruby,"Ben called, snapping me out of my monologue.

I jerked around on the patio of Robert's house. "What?"

"You want to come with me to harvest for corn?" he asked.

"Sure," I smiled. I got up and patted the dust off my jeans and went with him. Instead of hi-jacking a car we walked to the place where we discovered this large field of corn growing, just a few weeks ago. He handed me a duffle bag and I slung it around my shoulders and started picking out the stalks one by one until the bags were too heavy for me to carry.

We were peacefully picking the corn while having out conversation of small talk when suddenly there was a loud crash in the buildings close to us. We kind of ducked under the tall stalks to hide ourselves.

Usually in this time of day, the Infected are sleeping, so the building are quiet. But the loud crash was followed by some extremely irritating screeching and screaming then a bit of swearing. We peaked up from out make-shift hideout to find Robert looking rather low sitting on a car next to a dark shady building.

"Hello to you too," Ben said as we walked up to him. As we got next to the car I just dropped the heavy bag of corn.

"Oh. You two were here," he said. "Did you hear what I said? If you did, I'm sorry. I know Ruby doesn't like those words,"

"No, no. I don't mind," I said putting on a fake smile. In fact I really hate those words.

Ben took a look at what I can only make out as a car accident. "What are you trying to do?"

"I'm trying to catch one of those bastards," he said. The two dudes just continued on with their little conversation.

"One of the Infected?" Ben asked. "Why would you want to do that?"

"I think I'm getting a break through on my research, so I need a test subject to test on."

"What about those crazy rats you have," Ben asked.

"I want a human subject. I don't want to catch them at night, because that's just too risky. Ah, just forget it. I'll do it on another day."

"Can I come with you?" my little brother asked like the little boy he is, too curious for his own good.

"Alright," Robert said. "Two minds are better than one. You can help me think of a trap. Alright let's go home," he said.

Robert took up his rifle and whistled for Sam, who appeared from behind the tall stalks. Ben got his bag of corn and followed Robert as he wrapped his arm around Ben's shoulders. Apparently, they're buddies now.

"Come on," I said to Sam, "us, girls should stick together." She gave me a cute nod and walked along side me.

She reminded me of the other dog that we had. She was also female and was an Asian breed that usually were fighting dogs in China, but as our pet, she was as tender as a kitten and only nuzzled us with her snout when Willie pulled her tail when he was three. I remember she had this totally innocent look on her face when she does something bad. Even though she died before the KV was created at the age of twelve, I've always called her "my puppy."

Sam rubbed her body next to my legs as we walked down the empty ally in bright sunlight. We got home rather early. Mr. Osbourne was putting up the laundry, which I've never seen him do, even with his own clothes, which was an eye opener. Ms. Reynolds, unfortunately, was sitting on her couch rubbing her belly. I'm sure she misses her baby greatly.

When tomorrow rolled by all of went out to explore just a little to lift up the mood. Luckily for us it was bright outside without a single cloud in sight amidst the blue sky. There was even a nice breeze out side. We went into a tall apartment building among thousands in New York. We were still armed just incase anything happens, which seems to happen quite often in this day and age. Things you never thought about can just pop out of no where.

The apartment was large and spacious as we climbed to the very top. The first thing we did there was open the dusty drapes since the lights didn't work at all. Sunlight flooded into the room.

"This place is nice," Robert said. "You have a nice view of the city."

"Of course there's not much to look at right now," I said, gazing over the dead and destroyed city. "It must have been havoc when everyone was trying to evacuate."

"Oh yeah, it was everyman for himself," Robert explained. "What was California like?"

"Probably about the same," I said trying not to remember too much. "When people's lives are in danger, they can drop everything they are doing and jump ship."

"You didn't," he said. "You kept your brothers alive…" then he grew silent.

"It's alright. Everyone will die at one point or another. That's called life."

"You're really mature for your age," he commented.

"My friend used to say talking to me was like talking to an old sage-y man," I said. "I have no clue what happened to her," I said gloomily. After that night, I tried to make trips to all the people who I've known's house to check on them, but they were never there.

"It's alright," he said as he put a comforting hand on my shoulder. "It wasn't your fault."

"Oh, my God!" Ms. Reynolds screamed, tugging us back from out our "father-daughter" time.

"What?" Robert yelled as they all climbed into something.

"It's a rat!" Ben cried. We all seemed to yelling or screaming when this happens.

"Calmed down. Just because it's a rat doesn't mean it's infected," Robert said calmly, but suddenly something white and blurry jumped at him. He pushed me back on the bed and slammed his rifle butt into the thing like a bat hitting a baseball.

It flew right into the wall next to Ben. I half expected a splatter of blood on the wall, but it just bounced off and scrambled somewhere into the dark.

"GOD!" Ben yelled as he dropped his gun on the floor.

"Ben!" I yelled, ready to scold him for the swearing.

"Not the time," Robert said to me.

Ms. Reynolds covered her ears with her hands, shut her eyes tight, and continuously screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Catherine," Mr. Osbourne yelled at Ms. Reynolds," please stop that yelling." He tugged her hands away from her ears so she can hear him. "Please, woman!"

She quieted, but she was still scared stiff.

After that everything was quiet, as she carefully searched for the rat with only our eyes. Robert tried to step down from the bed, but the little albino creature just came rampaging toward his unguarded foot. I tugged him back on the bed when I saw the thing come. As it missed Robert's foot it made a screeching sound.

"Well, I know it's out of its mind and knows we're afraid of it," he said. The rat ran right through the patch of carpet with sunlight.

"Alright, what do we do then?" Mr. Osbourne asked.

"Well, we'll need to kill it to get out of here," Robert said, "unless you want to jump out the building from here." We were on the twenty-fourth floor.

"Alright, I'll lure it out and someone shoots it," Robert said.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "We're not Black OP Snipers."

"Yeah," he said, "you got a better idea.

"Fine," I pouted. In this room only Robert, Mr. Osbourne, and I had guns. Ben dropped his on the floor and dared not to step down to get it. From the looks of it, we're doomed.

"Okay, one. Two. Three," he counted and stepped down from the bed again. The rat came stampeding on it's own, but as we started to shoot it, it hid back in the dark.

"Sneaky little bastard," Mr. Osbourne said.

Robert was about to step down again when suddenly, the tiny coffee table from under Mr. Osbourne and Ms. Reynolds' feet thumped. The rat has gotten under the table they were standing on.

"What the hell?" Mr. Osbourne yelled, trying to hold onto the gun as Ms. Reynolds just continued screaming.

I could barely see in the shadow of the table the oversized rat running into the low standing table as if it heard the insult tossed at it. I thought it was insane. There was no way that a rat could turn the table over just from running into it, but the virus proved me wrong. Soon enough the table really turned over to our amazement.

The rat came charging its way toward the two that were on the floor. Robert held up his gun ready to shoot, but it jumped into two people flailing their arms around before he could. Then Mr. Osbourne rammed his hand into the rat and Robert shot it. I gave out a sigh of relief.

"AH! IT TOUCHED ME! IT TOUCHED ME!" Mr. Osbourne screamed with eyes wide with terror. "I'M GOING TO DIE! I'M GOING TO DIE!"

He stared at his hand like it had a disgusting mark on it. His whole body shook. His eyes went blind with fear. He suddenly got to his knees and whipped his body around. The four of us backed away from his swaying body.

"Calm down," Robert said. "It may have touched you, but the virus might not have entered your body yet. Calm down!" Mr. Osbourne ignored him. "Look, we can make sure you won't be infected!" he said with a louder voice.

Mr. Osbourne swung his arm at Robert like a weapon. Luckily, Robert got out of the way in time, and Mr. Osbourne flipped around unable to stop the momentum. When he found his balance again, he looked around frantic again.

His breathing was loud and hoarse. His body was in a low defensive crouch, like an animal. Then his eyes found the thing he was looking for. The pistol on the ground that Ben lost hold of before. His eyes went blind and he dived for the gun.

He took it with his trembling hands. He looked at it like he was making a decision. He looked at all of us, Ms. Reynolds, Ben, Robert and last his eyes fell on me. I could see the terror in his eyes as the images of Willie flashed through his eyes and bore into my head. It shot me like an icy dagger dipped with fear.

I saw, in his eyes, Willie, in his crouch and albino skin, his jet black eyes piercing and merciless, his growl appeared through his eyes. He looked at the gun and a smile crept on his face. He looked up at me again, this time with eyes of exhilaration to the point of insanity. He opened his mouth a let out a sigh of contentment.

"No," I whispered, his past terror etched onto my face. "NO!"

I charged at him hoping to get the gun before… He held it up to his head and pulled the trigger. I stopped an inch before his body as the blood sprayed all over me. His body fell in a lump on the ground. His eyes still opened and his face still with glee of escaping this prison.

Robert covered my eyes. His hand smudged the warm blood on my face.

"Don't look," he said. "You've seen enough."

But enough wasn't good enough for Fate's taste. I wept and wept, but Fate heard none if it. To my horror, there was more to come.

* * *

Sorry for the forever late update. Stinkin' writer's block. Anyways, I hope that I can update much much sooner next time. Oh, and it'll be nice if you leave a review, just a little motivation. Thank you. : )


	12. Chapter 12

Twelve

Misfortune seems to have become an acquaintance with me without me knowing it. It seems to follow me as a moth would follow a flame only, at the end, I would be the one being burned. Something in me can feel the Infected stirring. Their screams and howls from the outside have becoming violent as if they know we're living. Seeking us, smelling for us, and hungering for us in the dark that they live in; that we hide in.

Just a few days ago I heard screaming from one of those tall dark buildings while I was driving with Ben. But the screams and the howling and the screeching that we heard were not of the Infected playing around. We both knew those were the screams from the normal human throat. And the most horrible thing about it was we couldn't do anything about it except for driving by, turning a blind eye on the situation of the poorer.

If it weren't for our strong faith in our God, I don't know what we would have done by now. Would we have turned the barrel of the gun on ourselves? Would we have given up hope? Well, that doesn't matter. What's done is done and we just have to sit with it.

Ben was taking the dive that day pretty hard. He's always been a kind person at heart, even though he was tall and strong looking with his thick neck and arms tanned from the sun. He was always one to notice someone's needs even as a young boy. Even though he annoyed me as a younger brother, I new he was just as sensitive as he was kind.

"Ben," I said to him softly, "forget what happened on the drive, okay? I wasn't your fault."

"I can't," he said with his face buried under his calloused hands. Tears didn't come pouring out his eyes, but they did from his soft heart. "We heard people being slaughtered and we didn't do anything to help. How can I forget that?"

"What do you think you can do?" I asked, raising my voice so that the message can get to him. "What? Get our guns and just run into the building like S.W.A.T.? I'm sorry, but I don't think S.W.A.T. should even do that."

He knew that was the truth, but he didn't want to admit being powerless to help. I sat down in front of him. I knew the very pain that was like a cancer of fear in him. First losing our parents, then our friends were nowhere to be found, then our precious brother, then our Senator, then having a massacre happen right before us.

"Sometimes," he said, his voice shaking, "sometimes I wish I can just kill them all." He kept his head down, but I knew tears were streaming down his face. "I wish I can avenge Willie. I wish I can take him back. I wish I can take mom and dad back. I wish I knew where our friends are. I wish I could see the future two years ago. I wish I were smarter so I can at least help Robert a little bit."

I giggled a little. "Okay, first, if you were able to see the future and tell everyone about it, they would think you were crazy. Second, even if you were a genius, you would still need me to keep you alive before you should even think about helping out with the anti-serum." He smirked a little. "As of now all you need to worry about is keeping your sorry butt alive. Come on. Get up. The sun is still shining, God's still there. Even if the sun's not there, there's still the moon. And if—"

"And if the moon's not there, there are a hundred billion stars. I still remember," he said. "You said that line like every single time we're feeling down. Thanks," he said getting up and patting me on the shoulder. Although I can't call it a gentle pat, its Ben's brotherly pat. "I'm not a kid anymore. I can understand grown-up things too. I'm going to go on a run. I haven't ran like the wind since Willie died."

"Right. You two were like the east wind and the west wind. Let me come with you. It'll be nice to run around."

"You'll slow me down," he said.

"No I won't. Plus, I'll be there to protect your baby butt when you're in danger," I joked.

"Hey."

"Sorry, bro. You're still a baby in my eyes. I'm the only person in this whole world that has watched you grow up. Anyways, wear a light jacket just in case it gets cold. The last thing that I want is for you to catch a cold while in the middle of the Apocalypse."

"Alright. I got it," he said, forever annoyed by my nagging. "If you want to come hurry up and get dressed. "

"Roger that," I said and dashed up stairs. I couldn't believe that he would let me go running with him. He usually whines about it over and over again until I was mad and he was irritated even more. After that, Willie would try to come in between and stop us, but of course he fails, and them our mom would get mad and separate us.

I slipped on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt and jacket in super fast speed and then dashed back down stairs. Ben was already tying his shoe laces.

"Hurry up," he said.

"Alright," I replied and opened the door to Robert's lab. "We're going on a run, Robert. If we're not back by sun down, don't look for us," I yelled down.

"Okay!" He yelled back and chuckled.

"Let's go," I said after I closed the door and slipped on my shoes.

"Finally," Ben said opening the door. "If it's going to take you this long just to get ready to go, I'm never going with you again."

"Whatever."

We started with just a light jog, but it seems like Ben was getting faster and faster while I was slowing down more and more. At the end, I was still not athletic. The only sports I can endure is still just Wii sports.

Ben was way in front of me when he stopped to wait for me. "Dang you're weak."

"Don't pick on me!" I yelled totally out of breath. "Just because you're strong and buff doesn't mean everyone is." I finally caught up to him.

"You have to start working out. And start eating more. No one cares if you're fat."

"I care," I said. "Anyways, please let me sit down somewhere."

Ben looked around for somewhere I can rest. He knew very well that I had asthma problems. "Eh? It's Ms. Reynolds," he said and pointed to the deck of a medium sized house.

She was drinking some kind of alcohol beverage that was probably scouted out of the house she was sitting on. Somewhere along the road before Mr. Osbourne killed himself, they switched places. She became a heavy drinker that was rarely in the house. No one knew where she went and Robert was always worried.

Oh, speaking of the late senator. His death didn't brother me as much as I thought it would. I think it was because of the shock I received from seeing someone commit suicide. Many of the images that played in my head in the first few days after were blotched out of my head like a censored image in a movie.

We entered the house Ms. Reynolds was sitting on and went to the veranda. Indeed she was drinking her head off. There were already a few bottles of tequila and vodka emptied on the ground. She hit jackpot. There were many more bottles unopened.

She was looking in the direction of the horizon, but her eyes were blank like how mine's were when Willie died; blank with no life in them, as if the whole world just shut down.

"Ms. Reynolds?" I asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. She didn't flinch or react, just continued to look at the horizon as she brought up the glass for another sip.

"Ms. Reynolds," I said a little louder giving her a shake. "Let's go back home and get ready for dinner," I said. But it didn't my words didn't reach her.

Her mouth muttered something I didn't hear. I lowered my head to where her lips where to hear.

"Baby, baby," she whispered incessantly.

"What?" Ben asked me.

"She's thinking about her baby," I whispered to him. "I don't know what I should do. I'm worried of what she might do."

I didn't know why I told him that. He wasn't able to figure something out either. Suddenly a cry sounded loud and pitched. It was the Infected they were ready to get up since the clouds were thickening over the sun.

"We better get back," I told Ben.

"I'll see if I can get a car started. It'll be safer that way," he said and went down with the stair case on the side.

I turned to Ms. Reynolds and shook her a little more to try to get her to snap out of it. But the opposite happened. She snapped up from her seat as another cry sounded. I got more worried as thunder cracked for the last days of spring.

"Baby!" Ms. Reynolds said enthusiastically. "Baby!" She ran off towards the staircase that Ben went through. "Baby!"

"No!" I yelled trying to hold her back, but she was too fast for the un-ready me and sprinted down the stairs.  
"Ben!" I yelled out! Instantly he got out of the car he just started. "Get Ms. Reynolds! She thinks the screams are her baby's cries!"

He was nervous with the new information received but he got to running after her. Much quicker that I could have gotten to her, he grabbed her arms and held her down for a few seconds. But before I could get within three meters of them, she failed her head back and rammed into Ben, knocking him down.

"Shit!" he cursed sharply, but I had not time to worry about that.

He got back on his feet and went after her. Ms. Reynolds ran toward the screaming building like it was heaven. In the midst of all the chaos I was sure I saw the black eyes of the Infected waiting for us. Waiting for the sun to set and hide behind the clouds. I froze in fear at the sight of them lingering the shadows.

I was pulled back into reality when I saw the flaming red hair of Ms. Reynolds flying crazily in the wind. Her frantic and crazed body running toward what she thought was her motherhood.

As if I just had a heart attack, time stopped. She ran right into the building, right in to the jaws of the Infected. Rain started pelting down. First thing I felt were Ben's arms pulling me up from the ground where I found myself, collapsed.

"Come on! Ruby! We got go get out of here!" I heard before the screams and screeching. Then I remembered our own lives on the line. The life of my last brother, the one who spent sixteen years of my life to bring up. That gave my legs power again as we made for the car Ben got ready. We slammed the door and he slammed into the acceleration as hard as he can. He pushed the four-wheel drive to its limits as it brought us home.

We dashed through the rain into the house and collapsed on the floor soaked in the rain. Our bodies were frozen and our lungs heaving the warm air of the house.

Robert hurriedly came to our side and wrapped us up in thick wool blankets. We must have looked like ghosts with our pale skin and black hair all messy and wet.

"I'm glad you two came home," he said in a soothing tone. And indeed, it felt like we came home. Safe and sound despite what just happened.

He brought us to the living room and locked the front door. Soon he served us a warm cup of hot chocolate. It was hot and it burned our throats, but it was comforting. It lulled us to sleep and made us forget. It prepared us for the day after this night.


	13. Chapter 13

Thirteen

I stood in the center of a room, a room that I recognized, because I was in that very room yesterday afternoon. I saw myself, gun pulled out a ready to shoot at even the tiniest disturbance in the air. I remembered the feeling, even though I was numb. I couldn't smell the environment surrounding me, or taste the air, or feel the chill on my arm, but I remembered that feeling.

Sam was standing next to me her body ready to pounce. My head was turned away from me, peering into the darkness. A pulse went through my body to my finger tips like a heart beat. It thudded in the muted silence. The anxiety that I felt transferred into the air and numbed my muscles.

Ben was behind me. I knew, because I remember. We were trapped. We were in the bowel of the lions den. From where I stood I saw myself jerk to around to face me where I stood. The pain, the fear exploded from my face into my soul. It shot me like a bullet.

I muttered something, but I couldn't remember what. All I remembered were images. Then my voice shattered the silence like a soul being tortured and forced to live.

My body shook and jerked up right in the middle of the night. The wall of Robert's daughter's room closed in around me. The shock attacked me and I screamed in the safety for his house. I wanted light. I couldn't be in the dark.

The door of the room opened and Robert and Sam burst into the room. He switched on the lights even if it was risky. He came to me and held my shivering body.

"It's alright," he said. "Everything is okay. Shh," he comforted.

I tried to muffle my whimpering but he said, "Cry if you have to." So I gave in and cried.

He patted my bad and massaged my stiff shoulders until I stopped crying and fell asleep.

What happened you ask? Well, since I am the teller of this story, I'll tell it to the end. I'll start from the afternoon of that day.

"Let's go exploring," I said to Ben, trying to bring up his mood.

The two of us pushed away what happened five days ago. We tried not to remember what had happened. How we couldn't save one life. Ben grew silent after that day. And I tried incessantly to bring his mood back.

"Let's go to that old broken down building on that old street," I said. "After that we can go and see Willie and bring him flowers or something, okay?"

I looked down at him praying that I'll get a response. Finally he raised his head.

"Okay," he whispered softly.

"Alright. We'll go pick some flowers after we explore the old building!" I declared and pulled on my jacket and slipped my _wakizashi_ into my belt and a gun on the other side.

He got ready as I told Robert we'll be going out. Sam followed us to car we rigged that day. I drove to the building I was talking about. We stayed in the car for a little bit looking at the broken down building.

The roof was old and had patches and holes and looked way too big under the building underneath it. The building itself was pretty large but in horrible condition. The walls were moldy and have too much overgrowth on them. There were a few large holes in them and many cracks running through across. The windows were either missing or broken. And the glass was dusty and murky.

Cobwebs were everywhere. The whole building looked as if it was covered in a huge cobweb. If it wasn't for the daylight it would look like a haunted house. I guess it was probably abandoned way before the KV hit. It was probably empty for about a hundred years. The style of the house was old too. And the gutters were… just disgusting. I couldn't believe that I found such a house in New York.

"Are you sure you want to go in there?" Be asked.

"Unless you want to drive around for another place to explore," I said. "But this house is probably the safest. See how large the holes in the roof are? I think enough light is getting through."

"Yeah, but the house might fall on us."

"Nah, that won't happen. If it was capable of falling down it would have already collapsed."

"Okay. Let's go in," Ben said and opened the door. Sam jumped out the car and followed him. I crawled out of the large SUV and went over to the two of them standing on the side peering through the large hole in the middle.

"Looks creepy," I said quietly as if there were really ghosts in there.

"Then why'd you chose this place?" he asked.

"Well, I needed something to get you going. You were like dead for the past few days," I said.

"You weren't that good yourself," he said.

We look in the building just a little longer. From what we can see there were wires hanging from the roof and furniture everywhere in disarray. I couldn't help but wonder what happened when this place was evacuated. There was broken glass everywhere. And it smelled horrible.

There was a large puddle of water on the side of the wall. Mosquitoes bussed around with flies and gnats.

"I think this place was where homeless people stayed," I said.

"Why do you think that?" Ben asked, looking at some kind of stain on the wall.

"I mean look, over there," I pointed to a few piles of dirty blankets close to where the large hole shined light through.

"What are you? CSI?" Ben asked.

"Well, you get used to checking things out like this after a while. Want to go in?" I asked.

"Not really," he said.

"Chicken."

"Fine," he said a little mad. "I feel stupid," he said as he stepped over the hole in the wall to get in.

I followed with Sam.

"This place smells gross," I said and turned on a flash light. Even with the large light source from the broken roof the far corners of the building was still dark. Even though I proposed exploration I was still wary of the place I chose. But I planned to explore for only a few minutes. No one would really want to explore such a place. I mean it was dark, it reeked, and it might be dangerous and you can really find anything interesting, not to mention priceless.

Suddenly I realized something. Abandoned place no one wants to stay in, but it was as quiet. Too quiet. Old buildings like this should have been occupied by some kind of animal, but there was nothing. No something is here. It occupied it as its territory and it's sleeping.

I pulled out my gun silently and cocked it slowly. Sam came to me and whimpered. She knew also.

I faced the walls and scanned the place with the flash light. The walls were a disgusting brown color and it was stained and ugly. My eyes flashed around looking for something alive anything, but nothing moved. Suddenly, from my peripheral there was movement.

The hideous color of its albino skin crawled on the ground and it leapt for Ben. I flashed around only to see it tear at Ben's clothing.

"BEN!" I screamed. The life was almost yanked out of me when Ben shot the infected dog dead.

Sam growled behind me and I turned around a shot another dog that leapt at me.

"Get out!" Be yelled from his side of the building.

"Run, girl!" I ordered Sam and she dashed out the building.

I took out my blade and sliced through another beast that charged toward me. Ben and I made for the light in the center of the building and the dogs growled angrily at the side waiting for us to get out or for the light to set.

"So what do you propose we do?" Ben asked.

"I don't know. I didn't know there were dogs here," I said.

Ben shot at one of the dogs and it jumped away and the rest of them retreated back into the dark.

"We can't stay here for long. The sun is going to set and this circle is going to get farther and farther away fro the exit," I said.

"Well, that's a pain in the ass," he said. Ben held his hand close to his belly and crouched to the ground.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah. I was just head butted pretty badly," he said. "First think of a way to get out of here."

"I don't know," I said.

I waved the flashlight around and counted the dogs. "There's about six of them. I don't think we can out run them."

"You run," he said. "I'll back you up."

"Who's going to back you up?" I asked.

"Don't worry about me," he said. "I'm a better shot than you are anyways."

"Don't you say 'don't worry about me' to me!" I shouted back. "It's my pride to take care of you!"

"It's my pride too!" he shouted with double the force which shut me up. "You're always saying how you want to protect us. Willie and I. Don't you know we want to too? Let me be a good younger brother for once!"

I was silent. I didn't know what to say. I felt like tears were going to just stream out of my eyes.

"Don't you cry, Sis," he said. "Don't you cry about this, ever."

I rubbed my eyes hard. "I wasn't going to cry," I said.

"You go."

"Alright," I said. I put my _wakizashi _in its sheath and my gun in my belt.

"One, two," Ben counted. I took a deep breath. "THREE!"

I dashed for the light on the other side with all my might. The sooner I get there, there safer Ben will be. That's how I reasoned the moment. I heard gunshot and Ben yelling as he shot down his targets. After a few seconds we were in the light. I jumped from the ledge of the hole and rolled into the sunlight where Sam was waiting. Tired as heck from the sprint and heaved large breaths.

"Are you okay? Ben?" I asked as got up. I got no reply, so I looked up at him.

His back was facing me and he was as still as a statue. Suddenly a wave of fear and the same anxiety flooded over me. After a while I finally got the courage to move and face it. Face the destiny.

I walked under the roof that Ben was standing under. "Ben," I said to him, "is… you okay? How's your body? Ben? Please don't scare me." I put my hand on him then all of a sudden he pushed me away.

"Don't come close to me!" he yelled.

I fell to the ground several feet away from him. A puff of dust blew off the ground. It took me a while to recover from the abnormal thrust.

"What are you talking about, Ben? We need to get back home!" I said standing up and walked over.

"Don't come near me!" he yelled louder. "Just stay away from me!" he said, but stayed where he is. "Just go home!"

"I won't leave you all alone here!" I screamed, tears started coming out of my eyes. "Come home, please," I begged. I saw his blood flow down to the ground from his middle.

"Sis," he said, "I'm not okay, alright? I can't go home with you." He didn't turn around, but he just stood there. "Don't go into the dark," he told me, I could hear his own tears fall down his face. "I don't know how long I can stay like this."

I thought. I thought and thought and thought. I thought about the situation. I thought about Willie. I thought about Mr. Osbourne. I thought about Ms. Reyonlds. I thought about Mom. I thought about Dad. What can I do for Ben? My brother.

"Ben," I whispered to him, wiping my tears away and clenched my teeth. I took out my _wakizashi_. I came to his back, and he struggled a little. I was sure that he wanted to eat me at that moment, but he held himself back. His fists were clenched so tight blood spilled from his fingers and his teeth were grinding each other.

"I'm going to send you home right now," I whispered, holding in my tears and swallowed hard. I raised my blade and slit his throat. I heard Ben breathe his last with a long sigh as if he sat down on a couch and was ready to rest after a long day. "Yes, it has been a long day, hasn't it, Benjamin?" I said and hugged his slumping body.


	14. Chapter 14

Fourteen

I don't know how to start this chapter. At first I didn't know how to start feeling. How to continue after losing everything that I had. First my parents and my friends and my home, then my companions and now my brothers, they were all taken from me.

The day after Ben died, I sat on the couch and thought for the whole day. Robert didn't disturb me. He knew I needed to think. I needed to think of how to move on. I've learn enough from all the drama that I watch on TV moving on is the only option there really is. Sulking is going to do nothing.

I dug out my Bible. I felt like I haven't seen it in forever. Somehow I brought a feeling of nostalgia and peace to me. I opened it and just flipped through the pages reading all the little passages that I highlighted. Before the KV hit I was a pretty diligent Bible reader and was lucky to have been born in a Christian family. Since I was little, my parents let us watch videos of Bible stories and kept us in the safe environment of it. And when I was old enough, they let me stretch my hands.

They didn't hold be down to Christianity. I was free to go where I wished and that brought me deeper into Christ. When I was sixteen I became a novice cell group leader and was able to lead younger ones. I'm not boasting about my faith. I just felt like it was necessary to testify. After all, we are the witnesses of Christ Jesus' salvation.

After flipping through my Bible I felt like life was given to me again. I'm going to live. I'm going to live the best that I can.

The sun's still shining, God's still there. Even if the sun's not there, there's still the moon. And even if the moon's not there, there are a hundred trillion stars. And even if the stars disappear one by one. At the end there is still God.

I held my Bible to my forehead and felt the cool leather and the smell of the cover. The smell that I love so much, still lingered there. I thanked God for keeping me alive and jumped up from where I sat.

I put the Bible one the shelf with the rest of Robert's books; proof that I was there. I lived.

I started cleaning. After I finished cleaning the kitchen, I cleaned the living room. I cleaned out everything that belonged to Ben and Willie, Mr. Osbourne and Ms. Reynolds. I cleaned the room I stayed. It was Marley's room. It wasn't my room and I was only borrowing it so I returned everything to its place.

After that I started making lunch. I spent the whole of yesterday thinking, I felt I had to do some house work. Robert came with Sam while I finished cooking canned ravioli.

"Wow" he said. "You… You've… You cleaned." He was at a loss for words.

"Yeah. I felt like I was sitting for too long," I said. "Go ahead and eat. I'm sure you're hungry."

"Don't mind if I do," he said and sat down with a fork in his hand. "So what did you think about?"

"I don't remember what I thought about the first day. But this morning I thought about my family. I thought about my life so far. I took out my Bible and read through it a little. I put it on the shelf with your other books. If you want, go ahead and open it to read. That's what it's for."

"So," he said, "what do you want to do today?"

I thought. "I want to bring flowers to my brothers."

Robert laughed. "Alright. We'll go pick some flowers. How's that Sam? Hm?"

He crouched down to pat the dog. "Want to go see Ben and Willie? Want to give them a present?"

Sam barked and wagged her tail.

"Haha. Alright eat your ravioli and we'll get going," he told her.

I sat down and ate my own meal after a whole day of nothing. I've forgotten that food tasted this great. I've often ate pleasure food when I lost a few pounds, which didn't make sense to me, but it was good and enjoyable. This time I'm eating for life.

After we finished eating we just left the dishes in the sink without washing. It was "Lazy Day" today. We first went to the local park to play Frisbee with Sam. I never had a dog before and playing with her reminded me of one of my childhood fantasies.

I remembered I wanted a Shepard just like her. Once my dad picked up a stray one and it stayed at our house for a few days and just disappeared. I was only a little girl back then and believed that I would see it again, so I always looked forward to having my own.

Robert tossed the Frisbee over to me but I missed catching it. Sam came charging toward me with her tail wagging like crazy and threw her front legs on my shoulders. The both of us went down to the ground. I wrestled with her while she licked my face like it was ice cream on a hot summer day which was coming close.

She jumped off of me to go roll on the grass somewhere else. I laughed the rest of my energy away while Robert came over to sit next to me.

"It's a nice day," I said.

"Yeah. The sun's nice and high where we want it," he commented. "Want to go pick those flowers now? I know a good place where wild flowers have started to grow."

"Sure," I said.

"Let's go," he said and pulled me up. "Sam!" he called as I patted the grass and sod off.

I followed him to a place just a little more into the park where flowers just seemed to pop right out of the ground. Daisies, violets, daffodils were everywhere in whatever color they came in. Butterflies and bees buzzed around busily. It was peaceful. Like the KV had no affect on them.

A small group of deer were on the far side of the field grazing on the grass that grew with the flowers. The stag and does with their children were comfortable with the lions that napped lazily just a couple of meters away. It was like the Garden of Eden. There is no killing here. No fear here. Just peace.

I picked a couple of flowers for the two of them and another variety of them for Mr. Osbourne and Ms. Reynolds, who we made a tomb stone for. I used the long thick grass to tie the bundles together and at the same time I braided a ring of flowers for Sam and for Robert as a joke. He seemed to like the ring of white daisies dangling from his head. He made one for me, although when he was braiding them he used too much force and the blossom fell off. But I still wore it around.

The sun was nice in the sky when we made it to our little cemetery next to the ocean. I set the boutiques of flowers on the rugged mounds of stones and rocks we put together as a poor excuse for a headstone.

I specifically carved crosses on the Ben and Willie's stones, but it was badly done so I brought a little can of red paint to paint it over.

"Hey guys," I said awkwardly. It was my first time visiting a grave. I didn't know what do it, so I just copied the people in movies as they talk to their dead as if they were really there.

"So," I started and thought a little of what I want to say. "So we went to pick flowers today. Now your graves aren't so boring."

I laughed a little and pulled the hair dangling in front of my eyes. I crouched down so the tallest stones where at head level with me. I kept my hands at my cheeks and pressed hard. I didn't want to cry. Not in front of Robert and definitely not in front of them.

"Um… I'm doing fine, if that's what you're wondering. Don't worry about me. I'm going to live life to the fullest. It's corny, I know," I said as I imaged Ben's sneer if he were here.

Suddenly the ice block in my eyes just melted. My hands were like the wipes on a car, just going back and forth wiping the excess water away endlessly.

Robert put a hand on my shoulders and Sam set her head on my laps and whined.

"Don't worry about us," Robert said. "Just pray."

We stood there just a little longer. He waited for me to stop crying and then he said, "Let's go, Ruby."

I stood up with my hands wiping away the last tears and sniffed up the courage to start again. We went our way back to the car we came in and went back home. There was nowhere else to go, but home.


	15. Chapter 15

Fifteen

The two of us just drove around aimlessly around the city looking at different things, entering into random shops. We went to the museums and historical site, into theaters and schools. We went to places we've never would have gone before. Libraries and swimming in public pools or fountains. It was like New York was our on theme park.

"This was a fun day," I said as we sat on the edge of a fountain we jumped in. We dried out under the sun. "I wish it was like this before. Everyone would just be lazing around. It would be Willie's day everyday."

"Really?" Robert asked. "He seemed like a boy that would be hard working."

"Yeah. That's why lazy day would be his perfect heaven. I bet he's having a great time right now. He doesn't need to do anything at all."

"Ben would take everything for granted and complain when he has it hard sometimes. There was a time when he got really angry over washing the dishes. He complained that we always tell him to wash the dishes when it was his turn to. He got me mad a lot of times."

"Ah, they're boys. What can you do with them?"

"Were you like that when you were a boy?" I asked.

"Yeah, I kind of was. I hung out with my friends and dressed like them when I didn't want to. But it all changed when I started when I had my first crush."

"Really? I wish that day came quicker for my brothers. Push all the frustration on the girlfriend."

Robert laughed.

"How was it like when you liked her?" I asked.

"It was bittersweet I guess," he said. "I liked her and felt nervous all the time when she was in the same room as me or within eyesight distance. "

"Did you confess?"

"Nope. I held my breath all the way through middle school and the first year of high school until she left. And then I had my second crush, that time I did confess and we went steady for a couple of months and then she dumped me."

"Really? A girl dump you?"

"Yeah. Don't look at me now. Back then I was hideous. I was skinny and tall. I looked like a twig. It wasn't until college that I started building up muscles. And then I met my first crush again when I transferred schools, she was in the same major as me and we started talking. Before that I totally forgot that I liked her, but when I saw her again and started talking I remembered and got nervous.

We became friends and I got worried so I confessed. She laughed and went out with me. After we graduated and I got my job I married her."

"It's sweet," I said. "I wish I met a true love like that."

"Think about it this way. Once I get the anti-virus made and humanity comes back to life, it'll be easier to find him. They'll be less people to choose out of."

I laughed. It would be easier.

"Right?"

"Yeah." Sam barked. "Don't worry we'll find one for you too. Maybe someone for Robert also."

"Nah. I'm good."

"Whatever you say," I said as I patted and rubbed Sam's head.

"Alright. It's about time to get home," Robert said as he stood up. His t-shirt was still damp but the sun was no longer shining brightly either. "Storm's coming."

"Yeah. Let's go."

We got into the car and drove a little quicker than leisurely. But the sun was covered rain started to pelt down. It's just late spring rain, I told myself. But I got nervous.

Suddenly on the side of the car, something rammed into us. And then on the other side. I looked out the old bashed up window. Infected. They surrounded us, running on all fours like wolves chasing down their pray.

"Shit," Robert said under his breath and stepped on the gas. But the beat up van was in no position to go that fast with things ramming into it.

This time ten or so of them rammed into my side and the car lost its balance and slid on the wet asphalt. I couldn't tell what was happening outside, but I think we rolled on the ground and came to a stop as we hit an iron fence.

I clenched my teeth as I felt warm blood rush down from my head. Sam was under me whining under the weight.

"Sorry," I said to her as I climbed out of the car. I was dizzy, but did my best to look around.

The Infected were about a hundred feet away, reviving from the car. I guess we hit them pretty hard.

"Robert, are you alright?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said as he climbed out. "This is bad. Pray to God that he'll send some sun right around now."

"Been there, done that," I said. I took out the .22 mm that I had grown used to. It was lighter and easier to shoot for me. I loaded it and cocked it. "What do you propose we do?"

"Run," he said.

"Right."

We dashed to the left where the house was and the Infected came after us like we were steak and they were a pride of hungry lions. We didn't turn back to see if they were coming, we just ran for our lives.

"Shortcut!" Robert yelled and then suddenly made a left. I followed him down an alley.

I heard the Infected on the rooftops and behind us. We were like trapped mice in a maze.

"No!" Robert yelled as some of them pushed down a car from the roof top parking lot. It slammed down into a heap of metal and blocked our way.

"Shit!" Robert cursed.

The Infected, up and down, hissed and spit as they advanced to they prey, us.

"Any time now, God," I said under my breath.

Sam crouched on the ground and growled.

"Stay down, girl," I said and aimed my gun at the mass of Infected all around us. There is totally no way to win. The rain came down like the hail fire on Sodom and Gomorrah like it sealed our death in it's cold air.

One of the Infected crouched down like Sam and provoked her by roaring and spiting. It came close and Sam jumped at it and her jaws clamped down on its throat. Even if she killed it she was in the middle of the hoard.

"Sam!" I cried as I grew desperate and ran into the mob to rescue her. I didn't need to know, but Robert did the same thing. It was the instinct of a master to rescue his dog. We were goners anyways.

"Sam!" We both cried over and over again as we tried to dig her out of the mob. Randomly shooting as the mob of infected backed away and charged at us again.

"Out of the way!" I ordered at the Infected even though I knew they wouldn't listen, hear, or understand. I got hold of Sam's leg and dragged her behind me and shot forward. The Infected clawed at me and I tried to avoid their teeth.

We elbowed and kneed our way out; it was a miracle that we weren't hurt badly. It was like one of the amazingly fake scenes in movies where nobody got hurt.

"Robert!" I cried as the Infected followed us and started to claw and charge. I was half knocked out by the force.

He yelled out as a reply and shot his rifle. Even if we weren't hurt, we couldn't get out. Just then a dog jumped down from a window and glass shattered everywhere. It came down toward Sam. I sucked up air and stepped in between them, dragging a horde of Infected clinging on me and shouldered the charging dog. Its sharp long claws swiped across my face and shoulders.

Just then an Infected rammed its head into my abdomen and I passed out. The last thing that I saw was rays of light.

I came to in looking at the dirty mud colored ceiling of the basement in the house. The fluorescent like blinked like it was from a scene from Frankenstein or some horror lab movie.

"Robert," I muttered opening my eyes. "Where am I?" I could barely say the words. My throat felt like a desert and I was craving for water.

"Your in the lab," he said. I was lying on his lap. His brow was sweaty.

"Of all places, why did you take me to the lab? There's no light here," I said with almost a whisper-y rasp. "How's Sam?"

"She's fine, in fact she's waiting outside right now," he said also with a whisper, "but I can't bring you outside right now."

"I know," I said. The dryness of my mouth and throat just choked up on me and I started to wheeze with the most nasty sound in the world. "I don't have much time left do I? I mean until I turn into an Infected, and I forgot to wash the dishes."

"I'm sorry to let this happen to you," he said and pulled a strand of hair out of my face.

My eyelids were feeling heavy and they wanted to close so badly and my body start to heat up like I was in an oven. My fingers and wrists started to shake and I could feel several muscles in my body rippling like the feeling you get when something exciting is about to happen. My breathing start to become uneven and quick like I had and asthma attack and my whole body started to shake. I had to use all my will power to stay under control.

"Don't you apologize to me ever again," I told him in between gasps of cold air. "I'm the one that should be sorry, for all the trouble that we caused." Then I smiled, "You know? I think I found out the job that we are supposed to do."

"What?"

"Do you believe that everyone is put here for a reason?" I asked. He just started at me. "Do you know the story about Caleb in the Bible?" I asked. He seemed even more confused. "In the Bible, the only thing that Caleb did was say one line to the Israelite people." He still didn't understand what I was saying, but who would. I was talking about the classic Bible story of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho, just before I was going to go turn into an animal and lose my humanity.

"You know, after they took Jericho, Caleb never appeared in the Bible again. I'm sure his job was just to say that to Joshua or else the Israelites would never have entered the Promised Land. I'm sure our jobs were like that. We just came to keep you company for just a little while, just to create a hope."

I felt this urge to lurch forward. It surprised even me. I closed my eyes and muttered in my mind: Just a little longer, just give me a little bit more time. "Robert," I muttered, my throat was hurting so bad it felt like it would rip open and start to bleed. Sweat was poking out of my skin and all my muscles were rippling and shaking for control. "Robert," I yelled out with all my strength, "I volunteer to be your first human trial."

"What?" he said, tearing up.

Another urge burst through and my arm flailed at Robert. In time I grabbed it with the other and dragged it down on the table. I bit my lip so hard that the pain made my head snap out of the cannibalism it was starting to think. I grabbed on of the handcuffs on a metal gurney that Robert has setup for his trails and locked myself down to the table.

"What are you doing?" he asked. He didn't move or stop me.

"You have a promising component, right?" I asked. He just nodded, then took me up and laid me on the gurney. He strapped down the rest of my hands and feet. I couldn't help but gasp for air. "See…you…later…" I managed to say between gasps. The last thing I heard with my human mind was, "See you."

Then the there was like this flash and I was sucked up by an invisible vacuum. To explain this as a human is rather hard. I felt like a beast, forever hungry. A ravenous beast that only knows that the human that appears before me everyday was food. For the longest time in my mind I remember myself screaming over and over again. Just the lust to eat, to attack the living flesh standing in front of me, to imagine the stench of blood while it dripped down my chin was driving me crazy. I lost myself, I lost the moving, living flesh in front of me, I've lost everything. Then, finally, after, I don't know how long, he injected something in me and my pressured breathing just stopped.

I heard him yell, "No! No! Ruby!" and that was all. I guess that was when I died. I can't even tell you the time. But I know I completed the task given to me, a hope of some sort to a land that has lost everything. The first step... to peace.


	16. Chapter 16

Thank you

To my readers,

Thank you all for reading Just a Fool's Hope. I had a great time experiencing the finish of a story that I started on my own, even if it's only fan fiction. Even though this story ended in a tragedy and a little corny sometimes, I would like to remind all of you that even a fool's hope is a hope that can become something good. Never give up and something good will definitely happen at the end. Thank you for all your support and patience over the course of this year and a half. I hope you'll enjoy some of my other stories as well and don't be shy on giving me critique. Jesus loves you and God bless you.

Sincerely,

Rin-chan


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